Fata Morgana
by Kur0Kishi
Summary: Fata Morgana. A complex mirage, the only constant is that it is never constant. In a world where technology and women control everything, males have become obsolete. Yet a new male teacher, using the oldest IS, a prototype, has come to IS Academy to teach Ichika, Naruto Namikaze, Generation Zero. Even an obsolete cripple has his pride.
1. Generation Zero

**Fata Morgana Chapter 1**

**Generation Zero**

**Disclaimer : Do not own Infinite Stratos or Naruto**

Hohoho, new story has been rolled out. -.- Brrr... why cant i study?

Sidenote: this isn't a dimension hopping Naruto or something, a character, blonde, blue eyed with whiskers and is named Naruto. Outside of that, nothing to do with the Ninja world. Oh and for the first time ever, I don't have a planned pairing since I have yet to see a girl in IS that I really connected to. So recommendations are welcome.

Pictures are on Profile as usual.

**Soundtrack List**

Chemistry – Period

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood OST – Tsunaida Te (By Yuuki Kuromitsu)

******Fata Morgana******

"Have you decided?" a deep but feminine voice sounded through the dark shadow of a ruined building.

A tall man chuckled in the direction of the black blank screen, floating above the communication device with which he was receiving a phone call, "I'm not exactly full of free time. Tell me though, I'm more interested in exactly how did you manage to persuade the Academy to accept someone like me."

"There's a new student here. A male."

"Ah. Your brother wasn't it? There was a huge fuss over here about it."

"En. That's why I enrolled him in the Academy. But once he was here, we realized that our syllabus was mostly geared towards females. I argued that because we've never had a male pilot before, the teachers here cannot fully teach him what he needs to know, especially since we don't know how a male will affect an IS. Also, another male student will be coming in next month. It helped that your boss also wants you here..."

"Sigh... it's bad enough if it's just you. But whenever you and her gang up together, I can never win."

"Mmm..." she gave a non committal sound, "Not to mention... there are other things a woman just can't teach him."

He couldn't see her face since it was a voice only call but he couldn't help but chuckle as realization hit him, "Are you... blushing, Yuki?"

"SH-SHUT UP!"

As the man chuckled even louder, the shaking of his shoulders brought his face out of the shadow of the wall, displaying a finely chiselled face, high cheek bones, sharp and unnaturally diamond like blue eyes and sunshine blonde hair. When the chuckles had finally subsided, he spoke again, "Still, it's not that I want to refuse you but your brother is going to become an IS pilot. I'm **not **a male IS pilot." He pointed out with a casual smile.

"You're the closest thing to one."

Naruto sighed with a wry smile, "You're just going to keep pestering me until I give in, aren't you?"

"Yes."

"Brutally honest. At least until it comes to your brother anyway."

"SHUT UP!"

He began chuckling again as the sound of the call being disconnected reached his ears.

Standing up and stretching slightly he peered out from behind a wall, immediately ducking back down as a brace of beams hammered the wall, "Delta. Xiphas cannons please. Set to deactivate and stun only, let's not commit a massacre just because we're in a hurry, hmm?"

"Understood." A flat robotic tone replied out of nowhere.

Two glows appeared under his arms and behind his shoulders. The great blue polygons floating around behind his shoulder materialized into stylized turbines while the ones under his arms solidified into massive gun metal gray cannons, thrice the length of his arms. Cannons that the man swung about at the wall easily despite their apparent size and weight.

He squinted at the wall.

"Hmm... bout 2.6 degrees don't you think? Oh and don't forget the stabilizers."

"Adjustment to 2.6 degrees. Deploying stabilizers." Two metallic pods appeared behind his thighs and deployed a black a gray tripod, as big as the man himself to brace from the inevitable G-force.

The turbines began humming louder and louder. The moment they reached their peak, two massive yellow beams ripped out of the weapons, destroying the wall he had been hiding behind completely before rushing outwards to slice through an entire battlefield with its golden light, blowing through a massive fortress like building at the other end of the field.

When the bright golden blast had finally dissipated, the entire battle field was still in shock and the mansion at the top of the hill had been reduced to a half standing mass of rubble robbed of its former dark glory.

"Mmm... that should be enough. They'll be too busy regrouping from that to fight for a long time. Oh and reminder to self; buy some of that Indian curry that Chifuyu likes so much before we get out of here."

"Noted."

******Fata Morgana******

[PANG!]

The cry of IS Academy's only male student rang out in pain as his sister hit his head with the spine of a hard looking folder, "Wh-why Chifuyu-nee?"

[Pang!]

"It's Orimura-sensei in class you idiot. It's bad enough that you lost so beautifully in yesterday's match, but now you have the gall to sleep in my class?" she swung her folder at his head another time, the sound of plastic on flesh resounded through the class along with the sounds of the other girls in class fangirling at the forceful teacher.

"I- I was tired! That wasn't an easy match you know!"

The black haired teacher sighed exasperatedly, "What am I going to do with you?" she asked no one in particular. Suddenly the PA system blared static for as few moments, startling the class into silence before a feminine voice spoke, "Orimura-sensei. You have a visitor. Please head to the teacher's lounge." The speaker's voice cut out to some static again before going silent completely. The teacher in question let out another tired sigh before speaking again, this time to the excitable class in general, "Enough, class is almost over anyway. Everyone watched the match yesterday right? Write a report on what mistakes you could see in that match and hand in the report tomorrow."

"Eeeeh?"

Ignoring the loud grumbles, Chifuyu smacked her brother one more time, "Don't let me catch you sleeping in class again. You're the class representative of 1-1 now, you have a reputation to keep up, so show some backbone."

Ichika mournfully and warily watched his older sister stride out of the room confidently, he waited for the sounds of her heels clacking on the floor to properly fade before slumping back into his seat and releasing a pent up sigh, "I never wanted to be the class rep though..." he mumbled despondently, "Still.. I actually lost. So I don't get why I became class rep anyway."

"Tha-that, I forfeited the right, so you can have the position." A girl replied from behind him. He didn't have to turn around to see who it was because he already recognized her English accent.

"But why Alcott-san?"

"U-um you can call me Cecilia. Anyway I ceded it because gaining experience in combat is the fastest way to improve as a pilot, so I let you have it because class reps will always be first in line."

"Ah... ok."

Thanks for the trouble.

The girl in the modified uniform fidgeted with her long skirt, "Anyway, you want to improve more don't you? If you want I suppose I can spare some time to instruct you."

[BAM]

Ichika and Cecilia both jumped at the loud sound, at the other end of class, the source of the sound, Houki Shinonono who had apparently been listening in to their conversation had suddenly slammed her thick textbook onto the table and stood up stiffly, glaring at the blonde princess as she did so, "There's no need for you to offer. Ichika has already asked me to be his instructor."

Cecilia took the glare head on and simply smiled slyly, "Hoh? You want to claim the position of Ichika's instructor and monopolize him?"

A faint red stain crossed the Asian girl's cheeks and she immediately began blustering, "N-no that's not it! It-It's because Ichika that asked me first! Its only good manners if I continue teaching him!"

"Hmph, still it's in human nature to seek better things, if the elegant and beautiful me, grade A representative of England instructs him, he will definitely improve faster than under you, IS Grade C, Houki Shinonono-san.

"Grades have nothing to do with this! Enough, we'll let Ichika decide!"

Both females turned their burning eyes on the only male student of IS Academy, he shivered slightly under those fierce gazes as he frantically tried to find a way out, "Ah. Um, that..."

"DECIDE ICHIKA!"

Wooh... them shouting singularly was bad enough, now both of them were suddenly shouting at him, to make things worse, they were synchronized as well!

"Enough!" a loud commanding voice pierced the tension between the trio.

All three of them immediately spun around to face the speaker, "Ah, Orimura-sensei! Chifuyu-nee?" Without anybody in class noticing, mostly because everyone other outside of the trio had been so focused on watching the drama unfold, the black suited woman had stepped back into class.

"There's no need for you two to argue about Ichika's instructor. The Academy has already recruited someone for the idiot." She said calmly.

Both of the earlier arguing girls immediately joined forces again, this time Ichika was immensely thankful that their sights were set on his sister instead of him, "I said that someone has already been hired to teach him. A male teacher." The teacher clarified calmly.

"Eehh? But everyone knows boys can't pilot ISes, so there is nothing that the man can teach him right?" Cecilia argued fiercely.

"He cannot pilot an IS, but he will be a suitable teacher. Leave the matter alone."

Houki seemed like she was going to give in but this caused the blonde haired princess to only get more riled up, thrusting her chest out, she spoke imperially, "Where is this so-called teacher? I refuse to accept that a man that can't even activate an IS can teach Ichika to operate one better than the representative of England!"

"Maa, maa, there's no need to say something like that is there?"

A new voice entered the class room. Immediately all the girls watching the show began to chatter excitably. The new individual was tall, well built and sharply dressed in a body hugging formal white shirt, black overcoat and black slacks similar to Chifuyu's that accentuated his sunshine blonde spiky hair. Strange whisker like scars littered his cheeks, giving his sharp appearance a rugged look. More than one girl was drooling as they stared at the muscles evident because of the suit's tightness.

But that wasn't what caught Houki's attention; behind the man's stylish but simple sunglasses she could see glowing neon blue irises. She knew only one person with those eyes.

She gasped, "Na-Naruto-san?"

The blonde man smiled warmly, "Shinonono-san. Long time no see. How is your sister?"

Houki's face immediately closed down, only Naruto and Ichika who had been watching her, shocked that they somehow knew each other noticed the movement, "She is... fine."

The blonde seemed to understand and didn't pursue the matter any further, simply waving one lean hand cheerfully, "Anyway, I heard that there was some doubts about my ability?"

"That's me!" the blonde girl who had been watching the interaction quietly up till now declared as she puffed out her shoulders again.

The man who was nearly a head taller than even Chifuyu quirked a smile at the furious girl, "Hmmm? You are that confident in your skills?"

Beside him, Chifuyu rubbed her temples, "Sorry about this Naruto. But she's a **representative**, if you get my drift."

Naruto simply smiled crookedly at her, scars on his cheeks stretching as he understood the hidden meaning of the emphasized word that his friend was trying to convey to him, "S'okay, Yuki. It's not every day that you see someone who doesn't know how to use an IS, teach someone who does anyway."

Ichika felt his jaw slackened at the taller man, he seemed rather close to his sister, or at least close enough to nickname her. He wasn't entirely sure which one surprised him more, the fact that the blonde had enough balls to get close to her or the fact that his sister actually accepted the nickname without question.

His sister. The woman that regularly beat up people who tried to give her nicknames, be it in an attempt to make her seem more feminine or try to be closer than they really were.

Ignorant of Ichika's thoughts Cecilia continued to rail at her teacher, "See! Even he admits that he can't use an IS!"

"That's enough Alcott. The matter has been decided." Chifuyu cut in sharply.

"Guuu..." Cecilia quieted but everybody could see that she wasn't satisfied by the situation, including the usually dense Ichika.

"Maaa, how bout we settle this through a match? I heard you guys had one just recently, so it shouldn't be too strange right?"

"Naruto!"

He simply waved his hand as if to placating his furious colleague, "I know, I know, but I don't want to start out my career as a teacher with students already doubting me. Plus, they're only concerned about Ichika's IS education isn't it? In that case it's only reasonable for me to prove my suitability in an IS match isn't it?" He put one finger to his chin in a thinking pose, "Still... it's not really fair..."

"Ohohoho!" the noble lady laugh came from the formerly depressed blonde girl, "Now you understand the difference between a man and a woman? Don't worry, because it's me, I'll give you a handicap!"

"Hmm?" the man tilted his head as if he hadn't understood, "Ah, no I meant it wouldn't be fair if you fought me alone." He caught sight of Houki's frame from the side from his eyes and snapped his fingers as if in realization, "I know! Why don't you and Houki team up?"

In the situation of Houki, Ichika had to wonder if there was something wrong with the normally strong, straightforward and bold girl. Ever since his childhood friend had recognized the blonde, she had been steadily inching away from them, as if desperate not to give the blonde a reason to notice her. Suffice to say, she failed.

Her shoulders slumping, she managed to barely whisper a quiet, "Hai."

"Jaa. Then it's all settled. We'll meet for the match after dinner. Come on; show me around the place Yuki." Chifuyu simply face palmed, a motion so smooth and fluid as if she was used to his spontaneousity and sighed as she allowed the energetic blonde to drag her out of the classroom.

The moment the two left the class room, everyone in the classroom who had been utterly stunned at his one sided handicap to the England representative, began chattering loudly.

"Talk about bold! He didn't even give Alcott-san time to decline!"

"Fufufufu, just like when Ichika-san wanted to fight her too! Maybe it's because they are men? Are all men really that stupid?"

Ichika winced and slowly looked back at his two friends. He winced again, the blonde girl's eyes were shadowed by her blonde bangs and her clenched fists were trembling at her side, even he could not mistake the shaking for fear.

Cecilia Alcott was incredibly furious.

Houki on the other hand looked like strangely resigned, like she just wanted to get it over with.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT MAN! WAS HE LOOKING DOWN AT ME!"

Ah. Mount Cecilia erupted.

She started stomping to the door but surprisingly, Houki of all people clamped down on her and dragged her back to her seat, "Are you crazy? Just take the handicap!"

"What are you talking about Shinonono=san? I thought you were better than this!"

Houki grimaced but seemed to swallow her pride, "You don't know him, but I do. That guy isn't... normal."

Ichika slowly moved over to complete the circle, meanwhile behind the three, everyone else in the class began to stealthily eavesdrop with comical expressions. Most of them were drooling at the thought of gaining more information on the first genuine bishounen of IS Academy.

"Explain what you're talking about, Houki!" the blonde loudly ordered the pony tailed girl.

She shook her head, "If we can still move after the match, I'll tell you what I know."

With that ominous declaration, the girl who had her hair tied in a split pony tail immediately left the classroom to prepare.

"Wha-what's going on?"

"Maa... I'll cheer for the both of you."

Alcott's mood instantly improved, "Thank you Ichika-san! You want us to be your instructor don't you? Don't worry; we'll beat him for sure! Someone who can't even use a suit is no match for us!"

Personally, Ichika simply felt more relieved at the thought of having another person of the XY chromosome around but he didn't dare say so lest Mount Cecilia erupt again.

******Fata Morgana******

**Play Chemistry – Period**

Two girls dressed in dark blue skin tight normal suits stood ready in the middle of the school's arena as they ignored the excited voices of everyone in their year group who had heard about the fight and had gathered at the arena to watch. Gossip travelled extremely fast in IS Academy, though that was probably to be expected in a school filled with girls.

The arena itself was wide enough to fit three football fields and enough space to seat 300 thousand spectators, equipped with fully functional environmental managing systems for battle simulation in all kinds of weather and thick energy shields powerful enough to resist continuous blasts from RX-3 Solomon Express anti fortress missiles for nearly 5 minutes.

As expected of a facility that was widely touted as the fore runner in IS research and education.

Inside the Combat Information Centre of the arena Yamada Maya and Orimura Chifuyu sat, calmly watching the massive screen displaying all angles of the arena as they waited for the blonde to show up.

"Wa-was it really wise to allow this match to happen Orimura-sensei?"

Looking away from the screen at the small timid voice, Chifuyu grunted in annoyance, "It was either that or he would annoy me for the rest of the day. Besides his reasons were actually logical for once."

"Yo-you sound like you know him very well?"

"Mmmh... something like that."

Sensing the finality in the taller woman's tone, the smaller green haired woman timidly refocused on the screen, awaiting the arrival of the only male teacher in IS Academy.

Back in the arena, the two combatants had already deployed their IS suits and were waiting impatiently, "Where is HE? He was the one to want a match and he dares to show up late?"

The fins on the back of Cecilia's Blue Tears trembled slightly as if in agreement with their operator's anger, beside her, Houki who was mounted on a 2nd Generation mass produced Uchigane training model, had her eyes closed as she calmly meditated with a 170cm long black katana in her hands.

Just as Cecilia was about to blast her partner for seeming so carefree, a nonchalant male voice called out over the stands, "Sorry I'm late! I couldn't find a toilet so I had to walk off campus!"

The black katana in Houki's hands flashed up and down as she swished it, steadying herself into a steady stance, "Don't get angry Cecilia. That's just how he works." She quietly advised her partner, in front of them, the blonde leaped off the stands and somehow fell 9 feet to land on the ground with nothing but a small puff of dust.

Seeing that the blonde had arrived, the speakers situated around the arena began blaring with the familiar mousy voice of their Homeroom co teacher, Yamada Maya.

Seeing the blonde stretch uncaring of the loud magnified voice, Houki continued flatly without giving the blonde girl time to rebuff, "I'll take him from the front, while I keep him busy and distracted, you shoot from far. If you get a lock on, take the shot, don't care about me."

"Bu-but..."

"Just do as I say for now."

"Grrrr!"

Vaguely, Houki heard Yamada-sensei shout the word _Start _but she only had eyes for the blonde who carried himself with a relaxed posture.

"NOW!" As the shout was released from her throat, the Uchigane burst forward, spurred on by the electronic signals it was receiving from the receivers embedded in the spine of the suit that was making contact with Houki's normal suit, simultaneously, behind her Cecilia exploded onto the sky and began raining down bright blue laser shots on the blonde.

A small smile quirked on the blonde's lips as he swayed to and fro, dodging the bolts of light with minimal movement, the ground around him cratered with each wasted shot.

Cecilia who could see it from the magnified window floating around the bottom right of her heads up display growled and increased the number of shots from her powerful rifle, the Starlight MK lll.

The blonde's smile widened as if he knew what was going through her head but all he did was sway faster, as if listening to some sort of rock music that only he could hear.

"Hyaaah!" Houki dashed through the rain of lasers and executed a perfect side slash, cutting the air in front of her in a half moon arc and fluidly reversed the blade as she jumped, following the blonde into the air, intending on slashing him in half.

"Delta; Armor Schneider."

"Roger."

Two small, combat knives materialized in his hands. They were barely 10 inches long, yet the blonde somehow managed to catch the incoming katana smoothly with the hilt of one blade and deflect a laser shot with the other.

All in mid air.

Houki barely had a moment to register the fact that her 6 feet long katana had been stopped by a tiny knife when she noticed another one of the blonde's small sly smiles but by then it was already too late to react when the blonde used the arrested momentum from blocking her blade to flip in mid air, slamming one leather shoed foot on the Uchigane's shoulder guard and sending the black haired girl spiralling to the ground.

Cecilia's eyes widened, "Ho-how? That's an IS! A normal human shouldn't have the strength to even move one! Much less kick a flying IS hard enough to crash it!"

The blonde who softly landed on the ground looked up at her.

Then he winked at her.

"Gyaaah! No matter, he can't reach me in the air. Blue Tears!"

The four fins that had been shaking in their holders earlier shot out on her command and once deployed began to pepper the ground around the male with so many shots that it threw up a cloud of dust. As if that wasn't enough, the skirts of armour attached the hips of her machine flipped open to display row upon row of tube shaped missiles. Smirking, she began to barrage homing missiles at the blonde's general location, explosion after explosions of laser and missiles had been chained together to the point where it seemed be just one long blast.

The one single window devoted to Houki showed that the black haired girl had thrown herself on the shaking ground and shielded herself from the explosions with the Uchigane's armour. Cecilia kept firing long after she had lost sight of the blonde due to a large cloud of thrown up dust that had covered nearly half the arena, obscuring almost everything from view.

Panting as the adrenaline from firing so wildly ran through her body, Cecilia still managed to smile triumphantly, completely convinced that there was no way he was coming out from something like that completely fine. Even Ichika's Byakushiki would have folded under an attack of that calibre. Although what she would never tell anyone was that, that particular attack pattern had originally been designed to be used against Ichika's fast and agile Byakushiki if they ever fought again.

Huh? Why was Houki running into the dust cloud?

[Klang!]

Her blue eyes widened, "That insane bastard is still there?"

Her eyes widened even further as familiar black katana was suddenly sent rocketing out of the smoke cloud straight at her, its owner was nowhere to be seen.

Even more surprising was the fact that there was someone riding atop the speeding katana, using it like a surfboard.

"Kyaah!" Panicking, Cecilia fired her thrusters to gain some distance away from the blonde, firing her Starlight MK lll at the other blonde wildly. Said blonde winked at her again, threw two small blades that clipped her wings, destabilizing her flight pattern as he manoeuvred the black blade with one foot, using the broad side of the blade to block her shots before pivoting and kicking its hilt, changing its speeding trajectory from under his feet while the blonde allowed himself to fall through the air unsupported from a height of about a hundred feet of the ground.

The blonde princess was too busy to take advantage of Naruto's helplessness in the air as the katana hit her chest straight on, though her shields managed to stop the blade's momentum, brightly sparking as they did so, the massive inertia still somehow managed to throw the Blue Tears off balance and she had to struggle to keep herself in the air.

She failed as the Blue Tears crash landed badly.

The sound of heavy footsteps echoed through the dust that Cecilia's crash landed as Houki limped over to help the girl up, "We should give up. We're badly out matched." She whispered urgently.

"I refuse to give up!" a panting Cecilia rebuffed Houki, "He's not even in an IS! This is a disgrace of the highest order!"

"Really?" a male voice cut through the smoke veil and both of them stiffened.

Naruto calmly walked out of the dust and threw the Katana in his hands back to Houki with a warm smile, "I thought it was a good fight. Both of you did well. That barrage was really interesting. Two of your drones handled counter revolving spread shot patterns while the other two used the AI to predict my location, corralling me to one spot where you focused all your missiles at wasn't it? A bit too wasteful for my tastes but it should be pretty effective against fast targets that are too big to dodge through the openings. Targets with weak defence will easily go down after a while. Houki was good too; your blade and movements have gotten really sharp, but you shouldn't just focus on what is in front of you. This is IS, not kendo, up, down and behind counts as well, Houki. Because you cannot change your mindset from Kendo to IS, your slashes are too inefficient and easy to counter because you over extend in mid air."

The two of them were stunned speechless as the man somehow managed to lecture them in the middle of a battle.

Cecilia was the first to gather her wits, "Wha-what? Don't think because you complimented us, we'll give up!"

"Muu? Still haven't had enough?"

"I refuse to lose to someone who can't even get on an IS!"

"Ah... I see there's no choice then." He smiled widely, "You are using a 3rd generation IS aren't you? Perfect. I haven't had the chance to test this on a newer model so thanks for volunteering."

"What?" both of them echoed simultaneously.

The blonde simply smiled mysteriously, "Delta. Armour mode please."

"Roger." A flat monotone replied out of nowhere.

Cecilia blinked as a light appeared in the centre of his chest, shining through the white cloth of his shirt. Then she blinked again as gray metal folded out from behind him, mechanically folding and systematically covering the blonde's body.

Normal IS suits usually only consisted of some head gear and exaggerated clawed gauntlets and elevated greaves, leaving the pilot's torso and head generally unprotected but the machine in front of her was a full bodied armour, not a hint of flesh could be seen. A pointed snout like helmet with two pointed extensions that resembled canine ears sticking out at the top seemed to be made out of some sort of black glass covered his head, while plain segmented bluish gray armour accented with dull, burnt orange stripes covered the rest of his body. Two neon blue irises burning behind the helmet was all that could be seen of his face.

Most standard IS suits elevated their users at least a foot or two above their normal height because of the elevated leg armour but the one in front of her only showed minor changes in height, so he was still about 6 feet tall. The plain armour's most striking feature was the two fractured and wing like extensions behind its back.

All in all, it looked like a 6 feet tall bipedal jackal with fractured wings reminiscent to those one would expect to see on fallen Angels. Although the two of them were technically taller than him, because they were both on the ground, the jackal seemed to tower ominously over them.

"Wha-what is that?" The England representative barely managed to ask in a whisper.

"Mirage System." The jackal seemed to answer her.

Even as everyone watched in shock, the wings behind the bipedal jackal began to hum and glow as they vibrated.

''KYAAAH!" Beside her Houki started screaming, "Ho-Houki? What's wrong?"

The moment those words spilled from her lips, she realized what was happening to Houki.

Because it was happening to her as well.

Her heads up display began to fill with static and frizz as everything acquired a blood red tint, alarms built into her suit began wailing right into her ear as all her sensors went haywire at the same time, screaming the words _Emergency_ over and over again.

Buzzing yellow words in an ominous font scrolled down her display, _'Fatal damage to pilot detected. Suit reverting to life support mode. Deploying Absolute Defence.'_

"Wha-what? Fatal Damage? But I wasn't hurt!" she tried to scream, but the words wouldn't leave her throat, simply because it seemed to be blocked by her own panic.

"Absolute Defence detected. Match Over. Naruto Namikaze wins by default." Adding to her panic was the blaring voice of Yamada Maya speaking over the arena speakers.

The machine in front of them which hadn't even taken a step nodded once with its jackal head and the armour glowed before shattering into blue polygons that fizzled away.

The blaring alarms in Houki's and Cecilia's suits immediately stopped and automatically deactivated, dropping both tired girls on to the ground unceremoniously, much to their relief. Neither of them felt like ever leaving the nice steady ground ever again.

Naruto simply smiled and gently helped the two shivering girls into the medic ward.

******Fata Morgana******

**Play Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood OST – Tsunaida Te**

Two girls lay on white infirmary beds, one blonde and white black haired. In between them a quiet male sat watching them in concern. Neither them had spoken a word ever since Yamada-sensei had decided that even though there was no visible damage, they both needed to stay in the infirmary for shock over 3 hours ago.

"What was that?" Cecilia finally croaked quietly.

Houki maintained her silence for awhile before breaking it with a quiet phrase, "... Naruto Namikaze; my sister's childhood friend and enemy."

She looked over at a questioning Ichika as he quietly spoke, "Bu-but your sister and mine have been friends since middle school. How come I don't know him?"

Houki simply gave a nod and continued as promised, "You probably don't because Naruto-san wasn't always healthy, so he stayed at home. His parents were genius scientists at the time, and since they were friends with him, Chifuyu and nee-san always went to his house to play. However, nee-san took an interest in their work, and because she's a genius, they took her under their wing. I don't know what really happened, but one day Naruto's condition worsened. All I know was his body stopped functioning, to even breath he needed to be hooked up to a machine but his brain was still working."

The curtain around their bed was drawn apart slightly and Chifuyu gracefully stepped through.

"Chi-chifuyu-nee! Orimura-sensei! We-we weren't talking about anything forbidden!"

The black haired woman simply waved their protests off as she gave a sad smile and continued for Houki, "At the time, Naruto was to put it frankly, a genius of the highest calibre alongside your sister. Born from two of the best scientists in the world; one specialized in Bio-augmentation and the other in Computer Science, he grew up under a lot of expectation but he suffered a rare defect from birth that gave him an extremely weak body. He refused to let it bring him down and lived as best as he could, he loved Kendo, that's how Houki met him. But by the time we reached 6th grade, he could no longer even talk or breathe without a machine helping him. His parents combined their skills in order to find a way that would allow their son walk and talk again. They obtained funding for that purpose under the guise of creating a multi-purpose exoskeleton for space exploration."

Ichika frowned, that phrase sounded very familiar for some reason, beside him a look of realization dawned on Cecilia's face.

Seeing their looks, Chifuyu could only smile and verify Cecilia's thoughts, "You could say that his parents were the creators of IS."

Suddenly she frowned, "But before their research could be completed, they were assassinated because of their work. Everything seemed like it was going to fail and that Naruto would have to pass away without ever walking or smiling again but Shinonono Tabane, Houki's sister, their apprentice managed to finish their work. She finished the project that successfully allowed Naruto's brain to mechanically control his limbs through the exoskeleton."

England's representative swivelled her eyes between the two black haired women, "That sounds good?" she asked tentatively, "I mean, his parents passed away but he could still live a proper life?"

Chifuyu nodded shortly, "It sounds like a happy ending but..." here she looked at Houki who had a bitter look on her face, "Tabane got carried away by her thirst for knowledge. She took the project even further and created what we call IS nowadays. Countries vied for that knowledge; the pure destructive potential that resulted in the death of Naruto's parents. Tabane ignored all that; she just wanted to finish her work in the name of science. As the use for IS got more and more widespread, Naruto became angry. His parents' life work that allowed him to walk and talk again had become twisted in to a weapon."

The tall woman glanced at Cecilia, "You remember what he called your Blue Tears?"

The blonde girl nodded, "A 3rd generation model?"

Chifuyu smiled humourlessly, "If your Blue Tears is the 3rd generation, then Naruto himself is Generation Zero. He rebuilt his body from the ground up in order to create order, forcing other countries to stop abusing his parent's work."

"Alone, he fought the armies of 23 countries until they suffered so much losses that they conceded defeat and rules we live by today was created."

She took a deep breath, "That machine you saw? That wasn't an IS. That was him."

******Fata Morgana******

Chifuyu quietly stepped out into the halls of IS Academy, without missing a beat, she spoke lowly, "You sure you don't mind me telling them that?"

The figure leaning behind the door to the infirmary with his arms folded, smiled, "Meh. It's old news anyway."

"... I'm sorry I didn't help you stop Tabane." She breathed out gustily, "When she asked me to pilot the White Knight to stop those missiles, I had no idea what her real plan was."

Naruto simply smiled crookedly at her, "I already said it was alright the first three hundred times you apologized to me. I don't really care, it's in the past already."

"You're too carefree sometimes."

"Yeah I agreed with you when you said that the first three hundred times as well."

******Fata Morgana******

I've actually been working on this fic for a while, since last June if I'm not wrong, but the general framework of where I wanted to bring the story took a while to materialize, so it wasn't until today that I finalized it and rolled out the first chapter of Fata Morgana.

**The Mirage.**


	2. Mirage Alpha

**Fata Morgana Chapter 2**

**Mirage Alpha**

**Disclaimer : I don't own anything. Don't own Infinite Stratos or Naruto. I do own the concepts and plots that I introduced into the story though.**

Amusingly enough, Fata Morgana's first chapter has gained the highest amount of reviews compared to all first chapters of my other stories. (**SEE! the more reviews I get, the faster this shit comes out! HAH!)**

I also find it rather hilarious that despite all the buzz the ff dot net mods' purge is creating, most authors actually do have a copy that they reupload shortly after deletion anyway. Worse still, I noticed that for some reason, yaoi smut fics seem even MORE abundant than usual.

Right…. great use of time guys! Absolutely useful. You might as well have created a new category and be done with it. Trying to delete every fic that doesn't meet your standards is as stupid as it is pointless since anyone can just remake a new account, reupload and chances are; you won't even notice since I doubt you keep rescanning through each fandom again and again.

Though that still doesn't change the fact that not all affected authors are like that, some may be disheartened and completely stop updating. Which is still bad. Ever heard the phrase; time to cut your losses?

**Soundtrack List**

**Macross Frontier OST – Aimo (Battle Version)**

******Fata Morgana******

"Hmm…. Coming here was really a good thing…" Naruto mumbled as he slumped into his chair with a peaceful, sleepy expression on his face that completely belied his roving blue eyes, stirring a cup of tea with one hand.

The woman sipping a cup of coffee beside the man in the Academy's cafeteria calmly clinked the cup back on its saucer before smoothly reaching for her trusty folder.

[PANG!]

"OI!"

"I invited you here to be the male combat instructor not to perv on your students." She admonished him sharply.

"I'm a** guy**! You can NOT expect me NOT to enjoy watching the huge amount of healthy female skin on display!"The blonde protested loudly then he smiled goofily, "Incidentally, what the hell do you feed them? I have yet to find even one girl that isn't beautiful in one way or another."

"Sigh…. You idiot…" Chifuyu got up and began walking away.

"Eh? Where are you going?"

"You have class." She answered curtly.

Completely unaffected by the cold tone, Naruto affected a smile and followed her, "Ooops. Don't wanna be late. You still haven't told me what you're feeding them, I think if you sold it outside, you'd make a fortune."

"Don't need one."

They continued the conversation in that manner, all the way to class, the tall energetic blonde chattered about anything and everything while his friend gave cold short answers. More than one person sweat dropped at the strange pair as they walked down the hall.

******End Game******

"Alright, everyone sit down and shut up."

Ichika looked around the empty hangar, unsure about exactly who _everyone _was, but gingerly sat down on the ground anyway. For some strange reason, his combat class had suddenly been separated from the girls, changing locations from the arena to the East Hangar. Therefore, from the slightly open door, he could hear his sister's voice ordering the girls to get into an IS and start flying laps.

His teacher on the other hand, a tall blonde in a black suit and dark sunglasses nodded in satisfaction and walked behind a table where pieces of equipment had been scattered, "Has Orimura-sensei taught you about an IS's weaponry?"

Ichika immediately shook his head, "She said that…. Err… because I'm an idiot, there's no point teaching me about long range weapons and that I should only focus on using Yukihira."

Those glowing blue eyes blinked in surprise, "Ah…. That changes things a little. Tell me, what do you think of having only one blade to fight with? Do you like it?"

Ichika cocked his head questioningly, "I…. like it I guess? But it's a bit hard to adjust to."

"Hmmm… Do you want to use long range weapons? Rifles and so on? Or maybe another blade or two as support?"

Ichika chuckled slightly and scratched his head in embarrassment, "Ma… well Cecilia-san looked really cool with her sniper and Blue Tears."

"Ichika…." A new female voice echoed around the empty hangar, sounding suspiciously familiar and emotional at the same time.

"Ehh? Cecilia?"

As Cecilia glomped Ichika, a group of girls began to troop into the hangar, all of them similarly dressed in skin tight normal suits along with Chifuyu and Yamada who were both dressed in jerseys.

"Namikaze-sensei." The smaller woman bowed politely and received a smile and a nod in return, turning to the other teacher, his lips quirked, "Hoh? I wasn't aware you and your students would be joining us, Orimura-sensei, Yamada-sensei."

"I thought it would be beneficial for the girls to see what you were teaching Ichika." Chifuyu answered instead of the timid Maya-sensei.

"Ah…. Just Basic weaponry and Power Management. I was going to cover the basics of the first because he doesn't seem the type to use guns and focus on Power Management but it seems like I might have to adjust."

Chifuyu nodded once and motioned for Yamada to follow her as she retreated to the back of the hangar to watch.

"Enough." He hadn't even raised his voice or even indicated anger in his tone, but that one word had somehow commanded all the chattering girls to immediately fall in line and stop talking through sheer force of personality. More than one girl had shining eyes, dilated pupils and accelerated breathing as they watched the blonde stand at the front commandingly.

Glowing blue eyes swept around the Hangar before he nodded in satisfaction, "Can anyone tell me the two categories that all IS grade weapons fall into?"

A small girl at the front with shoulder length dark pink hair and two yellow bands timidly raised one hand.

"Yes and you are?"

"Umm… Nonotoke Honne. Energy and non-energy weapons."

Naruto smiled warmly, causing the girl to blush before hefting up one of the pieces of equipment on the table in front of him, "Energy weapons, also commonly known as beam or laser weapons. One good example would be Alcott-san's Starlight Rifle. On the other hand, an example of a non energy weapon would be this," he carefully aimed the larger than normal rifle in his hands away from his students, "This is an unequipped, IS grade T-90 Bloodhound semi auto rifle. Unlike the optical beams that Cecilia-san's rifle fires, this one shoots .50 caliber steel tipped sabot rounds. That alone should tell you that it is extremely dangerous and is too powerful to be operated without an IS."

Carefully placing the big black rifle back onto the table, he continued, "Keep what I've just told you in mind for the moment. Now, each and every legal and quality controlled IS that is produced has three primary means of defense at factory setting. A standard energy shield, the Absolute Defense shield and while most don't realize it; a standard issue meta polymer shield that doesn't take up any expansion slots. Newer models even coat those shields with anti beam coating. Cecilia, can you demonstrate? Just summon your IS, and use the command phrase, _Shield._"

Nodding unsurely, she summoned her Blue Tears anyway and enunciated the required phrase with her clear feminine voice, "Shield."

A bright group of polygons immediately appeared in her off hand and swiftly materialized into a broad dark blue undecorated oblong shield that was nearly as tall as her.

"I never knew…"

The blonde in front of class grinned at her surprise and waved at her to deactivate the IS, "As you can see, I was not lying. Even the mass produced Uchigane is equipped with them and are very useful in any match. Now who can tell me why am I telling you all this?"

A quiet blue haired girl at the back of the group slowly raised her hand and spoke lowly, "…Power vs Damage ratio."

"Very good… Um?"

"…Sarashiki Kanzashi."

Naruto blinked, he had thought this was just 1-1 but since he knew the girl was in 1-4, the entire first year was apparently present.

Nonetheless he recovered immediately and smiled benignly, "Very good Sarashiki-san. The Power vs Damage ratio measures the amount of an IS's damage output relative to the amount of Power it uses to do so. To elaborate, every IS comes equipped with an internal power source. Your energy shields and Absolute Defense is fed from that source, so are any beam weapons you are carrying. Now, overall, beam weapons have an undoubtedly higher damage output compared to most conventional non energy weapons. Unlike non energy weapons, they always fire straight, are unaffected by external conditions like wind, have no recoil and all round hurt like crazy."

He paused for a moment and let everything that had been said sink in, "However, they also use a lot more power, reducing the amount of power available for energy shields and their damage is reduced against energy shields. On the other hand, they are very effective against normal solid shields. In contrast, non energy weapons like this Bloodhound are very effective against energy shields but weak against solid shields. In addition, despite being affected by external conditions, especially at extreme range, prone to overheating, slowly being phased out of development and doing less damage overall; using a non energy weapon does not use up energy from the IS's power source and are a very reliable source of damage in mid range battles."

Glancing at the blonde girl who had just sat down, he smirked, "Now, imagine that every IS has 3000 units of power. By law, 80% of a power source is always reserved for Absolute Defense, everything else is used for the energy shield and any beam weapons the IS might be carrying. Therefore, in this hypothetical case, we have 600 units of energy left. Now imagine that every shot Cecilia takes with her Rifle, uses up 5 units of energy, every hit she takes in return uses up 10 points of energy. Can anyone tell me what will happen if she kept firing her weapons as wildly as she did yesterday?"

"…..Lose."

Purposefully ignoring the steaming, red faced pilot of the Blue Tears, Naruto continued, "Correct, had I allowed her to waste her shots and simply dodged them, she would have eventually lost because her own IS would have automatically activated her Absolute Defense when the power drain reached required levels. So why is this, an issue?"

"Umm…. To conserve power unless necessary?"

The blonde smiled at the small girl in front of him, "More like balance power usage, and knowing which type of weapons and defenses to use in order to achieve maximum efficiency. Sometimes you have to go all out to win but if you use too many attacks that drain your battery, your opponent only has to chip away at your shields once or twice to win by default. In that kind of situation, you should rely on non energy weapons to balance out the energy drain. Same goes for defenses, if you were smart, you would have checked your opponent's armaments beforehand and prepared accordingly."

Just as he was about to continue the lesson, the sound of bells chiming rang throughout the school, causing all the students that had been engrossed in the lesson to jump slightly.

"Ah, I guess time is over." Most of the girls looked genuinely sad that lessons were over, causing the blonde to grin happily, "Before everyone leaves, is there any questions?"

One girl lifted her hand, "Aikawa Kiyoka, if Namikaze-sensei and Delta fought with Orimura-sensei and Kurezakura, who would win?"

Sparing the teacher at the back of the hangar a brief glance, he replied with an easy smile, going with the official story of why he could use something that highly resembled an IS, "Orimura-sensei would win easily of course. Remember that the Delta is for all intents and purposes, an outdated prototype of the IS, originally known as an Orbital Frame, or OF. Its speed, flight capabilities, maneuverability, power and defense are all lacking compared to even a first gen IS. Plus, its only armaments are two small blades. There's no way someone like me could win against Orimura-sensei."

"Then why doesn't Sensei change to something newer?"

Naruto Namikaze gave his students a soft smile that caused more than one of them to start swooning, "You could say I am rather emotionally attached to it."

To be precise it was stuck to his spine, that's how attached he was.

Chifuyu slowly rubbed her temples at the back of the Hangar.

The girls just swooned harder.

Seeing no other questions, he continued, "For homework, go home and imagine you were fighting Ichika Orimura; a fragile, speed type fighter," He smirked at Chifuyu, "With only one beam type sword and a special ability that drains his batteries like a hungry hippo. What steps, weapons and battle strategy would you take to win? Ichika, your assignment will be what sort of defenses you might take against energy and non energy weapons and counters against them with the Byakushiki."

As the students slowly trooped out, all of them excitedly talking about the lesson, Naruto noticed Chifuyu slowly walking over to him. He grinned and waved at her with a casual greeting as he began packing away the weapons on the table, "Yo, Yamada-sensei, Yuki, how was my first class?" Receiving no reply, he looked at his friend. The moment he saw her face, he began carefully inching away, "…Yuki? Why are you smiling like that? It's scaring me."

The black haired woman gave him a warm, gentle and utterly fake smile before not so gently whacking him over the head with her textbook.

Chifuyu rolled her eyes as Naruto hopped around the hangar in pain, "Why do you keep insisting on calling Reiraku Byakuya; the Hungry Hippo Sword?"

This wasn't the first time he had poked fun at her fighting style. In fact, he did it every time he had the chance.

The blonde chuckled as he rubbed the lump on his head, "It's true though, it eats batteries like Tabane loves sweets, and I'd wager that the Yukihira Niigata is no different. I'm not saying he shouldn't use it, but he should just get some more experience in IS battles first." Naruto grimaced and shrugged embarrassedly, "No offense meant to your brother, but seeing him wave that thing around like a baseball bat after watching you fight with it so gracefully was like an insult to the Hungry Hippo."

A very light pink dusted her cheeks as she realized that the crazed blonde had just essentially said she was graceful albeit in a backhanded manner. Still, she fixed a cold expression on her face rolled her eyes again and decided not to argue about how contradictory his sentence sounded, "Is that why you were trying to corrupt him into using guns before I came?"

"Ah… you heard that huh? Nah, not corrupt. Just as a backup until he knows how to use it properly." Naruto corrected, "Someone that knows how to use it is well enough is one thing, giving the Yukihira to a new pilot like your brother is a whole different ballgame. Seriously, if Cecilia or anyone else had the forethought to pull out a solid shield against him, you might have been able to counter it, but him? In the future, maybe, but right now, you might as well have given him a wooden stick for all the good the Yukihira would have done."

Naruto grinned stupidly, "Ah good times, I still remember the look on your face when I did it to you the first time."

[PANG!]

"Wh-what was that for?" Seeing the blush on her face, Naruto immediately deduced the reason, "Oho! You haven't even told him about the Reiraku Byakuya's weakness have you? Because all of its power is used to neutralize energy shields, its edge becomes practically useless against solid shields."

"That's why we hired you isn't it?"

"…..You hag!"

[PANG!]

"Who the hell are you calling a hag!"

And again people stared in utter amazement at the arguing teachers, one cool and sharp, the other manic and bright, as they walked to 1-1's class. Although, Naruto was simply following her out of boredom since his scheduled classes were technically over.

Just as they reached the class, they heard the sounds of a girl shouting.

"I'll bet you dinner that has something to do with your brother."

"No deal. That idiot can miraculously get into trouble even when he is standing still."

Grinning Naruto reached into his pocket and pulled out a coin, "Flip you for it."

Chifuyu rolled her eyes, "No need, I'll deal with it."

******Fata Morgana******

"Ma, ma, don't look so down." Naruto patted Ichika's back before continuing to fiddle with some equipment.

"But I have to fight ANOTHER representative! I mean I thought it would just be friendly competition, but I don't know why Rin wants to kill me! I just want a normal school life! I Is that too much to ask for?"

Naruto chuckled and threw a bracelet at the younger male, "Then chop off your testicles. That way, you'll be a girl, have a normal life in this Academy, discard all your girl troubles and I can quit this job." Ichika who had just caught the bracelet, winced and covered his precious genitals. The blonde chuckled and waved his hand to show that he was just joking.

Somewhat.

Slowly, the younger male recovered but he made extremely sure to keep his family jewels away from the blonde.

"What's this?" Ichika asked as he inspected the simple steel band.

"Wear it over Byakushiki's band, when you have it on, summon Byakushiki.

Ichika did as requested, once the shining white steel behemoth was activated and Ichika was peavefully hovering he pulled up a basic scan of the unit but couldn't find any differences, "So… what does that band do?"

"Hmm? It'll automatically reroute 100% of the Byakushiki's power source to its energy shields."

Ichika's eyes widened in shock, "Hu-huh? Why would I want to do something so dangerous?"

This time it was Naruto's turn to roll his eyes, "I didn't tell you to keep it on permanently dumbass. Just… for when we have this kind of practice."

"**This** kind of practice?" Ichika warily asked as he caught a wooden sword the blonde had thrown at him.

Ichika's eyebrow began to involuntarily twitch as the blonde loaded a gleaming black gun with an ominous click before picking up another long rifle with his free hand, "What? Wa-wait! What if my shields run out? More importantly, what are you doing with those?" Ichika asked with a hint of panic in his voice as a small screen popped up on the Byakushiki's display, identifying the first rifle as the T-90 Bloodhound and the other weapon as an Mk316 Valkyrie high output beam rifle.

The black haired boy's ears were filled with the sounds of both guns firing simultaneously and he struggled to keep his balance as the Byakushiki was rocked violently as it shields struggled to stop a metal bullet and a laser shot at the same time at point blank range.

"Are you crazy? That was dangerous!"

A wide smile spread on the blonde's face, "What does it look like I'm doing? I'm shooting you. So start running."

"Gyahaa!" Ichika leapt up to dodge more shots as the blonde began firing, "Isn't that the Bloodhound! And a beam rifle? Are you trying to kill me?" The blonde smiled as the massive gun in his hand began blazing into the sky, causing Ichika to dodge in a panic, "IT'S .50 CALIBERS ISNT IT? DON'T SAY GET HURT, I'LL EXPLODE LIKE A DAMN WATERMELON IF I GET HIT WITH THAT!"

"Yep! Your job is to dodge my attacks and try to hit me with that bokutou while I try and…., " The blonde smiled sweetly and gave Ichika the victory sign with two fingers, "…** kill** you."

"YOU BASTARDDDD! DON'T TRY TO ACT CUTE DURING MOMENTS LIKE THIS!"

"Ma… this is something good you know. Like your sister said, you prefer direct contact with your opponents and you keep insisting that you are too stupid to grasp the nuances of long range combat." The blonde smiled beatifically, "That's why I'm going to beat it into your body. I promise you that the next time you fight with another IS, your body will remember the most efficient way to dodge or block an attack. Kukukuku, don't die Ichika~"

Up in the shadows of the stands, Chifuyu pinched the bridge of her nose to desperately stave off an incoming headache as the sounds of a insanely laughing blonde and her screaming brother reached her ears and wondering for the hundredth time how on Earth had Naruto managed to persuade her to let him to do this. Oh well, Ichika was an idiot that learnt best while doing… Usually.

Below her, in the arena, she heard her childhood friend speak again, "Don't worry; you have one week to hit me."

"On-one week? We're doing this for one week?" he screamed hysterically, "AND STOP SINGING '_TWINKLE, TWINKLE LITTLE STARS'_ WHILE YOU'RE TRYING TO KILL SOMEONE!"

Whatever empathy and respect Ichika might have had for the blonde in the sunglasses evaporated like a drop of water in a blast furnace as said blonde began humming something else instead.

"….."

"NOOOO! THAT FUNERAL MARCH IS EVEN WORSEE, AYIEEE! CHIFUYU-NEEEEE!"

There was a complicated feeling in Chifuyu's chest, "Is this what they call _'a lion throwing its cubs off a cliff'_?" she mumbled quietly to herself as she watched her brother zoom around the arena's air space, spastically evading a storm of bullets and orange bolts of lights.

******Fata Morgana******

[Knock Knock]

Houki immediately perked up, her roommate had been missing ever since dinner and now that I was getting late, she had begun to get worried. He wouldn't have gone to dinner with that blonde bimbo or something would he?

Stomping over to the door, she swung it open violently with a frown on her face, "Ichika! Where we…re yo-Naruto?"

Unexpectedly, instead of the person she had wanted to see, framed in the door way was the blonde male combat instructor. With a lump of something thrown over his shoulders.

Naruto grinned widely, "Yo, Houki. It's good to see you."

"Na-naruto? What are you doing here?" she happened to glance at the blue sack of something on his shoulders, "Wa-wait! Is that Ichika?"

"Yeap. He is…. a little tired?"

"Wha-what was he doing?"

"Oh nothing much." The spiky haired blonde grinned, "Just some light training. He really enjoyed it too. That's why his so tired."

"Hou… ki….. sa-save…. Insane…. B'tard…" the lump of flesh moaned.

Naruto dropped said lump of flesh on to the floor, ignoring its yelp of pain, "Don't mind him. He's so tired that he doesn't know what his saying. By the way," Naruto pointed at the luggage by the empty bed, "That's Ichika's stuff isn't it? He hasn't unpacked right?"

Houki who was frantically trying to awaken the swirly eyed Ichika barely registered the question and nodded.

The blonde started whistling as he packed everything up swiftly, once he was done, he grabbed Ichika by his collar again.

"Wha-where are you going with him?"

"Hmmm? To the new male rooms."

"Bu-but his my roommate!" Houki stammered out.

"_Was_ your roommate, better a male teacher and student share rooms then a male and female student right?"

"Urgh…..Bu-but…"

"Oho?" Naruto grinned cheekily at the blushing girl, "Has little Houki grown up? All you have to say is that you want to stay in the same room as him and I'll let it go. I'll even tell the Director that this is necessary for his growth. Fufufu, then the two of you can do all the naughty things you want. Ah… Tabane will be soooo happy."

Her blush turned radiant as the girl started trembling in anger, "Th-th-There is no such thing! Get kicked by a horse and DIE Baka-Naruto!"

The blonde grinned and barely pulled his face back in time to avoid getting it smashed as the black haired girl slammed it in his face.

"Kukukuku…. Ah… puberty; steamy sexual tension, prepubescent awkwardness! So much fun~" he began whistling cheerily as he dragged an unconscious Ichika down the hall in one hand and Ichika's luggage in the other.

******Fata Morgana******

The day of the Inter class matches dawned bright and clear, with beautiful clouds puffing across the sky and a breezy wind that was absolutely perfect for a picnic. One certain male instructor hummed happily as he spun around in an easy chair next to the timid Yamada-sensei and on the far end, his childhood friend, Orimura-sensei.

Below in the Hangars, Huang Lingyin was prepping herself up to defeat her own childhood friend and hopefully defeat him…. so that they could be all lovey dovey.

It didn't compute, but then again, girls never did.

In the other hangar, Cecilia Alcott and Shinonono Houki stood in front of Orimura Ichika, looking extremely concerned for their mutual crush. The boy swayed on his feet as he slowly shuffled to the catapult, his usually bright eyes looked dull and his hair was wilted, lacking their usual spring.

"D-do you think he will be ok? He's been like this all week. What happened to him?" Cecilia whispered in concern as she watched Ichika stumble his way to the catapult like a zombie.

"I…. dunno?" Was the quiet reply.

"What do you mean you don't know!" the blonde girl whispered angrily, "Aren't you his roommate?"

Houki glared at her rival in dissatisfaction, "He isn't anymore. Namikaze-sensei told me that the new male rooms were ready and dragged Ichika off. We're not roommates anymore so I haven't seen him outside of class at all. We can't even train with him because Naruto is doing that instead of us,"

To Ichika who was too busy focusing on putting one foot in front of the other, he didn't hear the angry whispered conversation behind him at all. Subconsciously summoning the Byakushiki, he wearily lodged its leg units into the catapult slots and waited for the time for the match to begin, using the first free time he had in a week to rest.

"How can this be ok? He's practically sleeping standing up? That's it! I'm going to complain to Orimura-sensei after this. I don't care how good that idiot is at fighting, I don't believe she would want her brother to suffer like this!"

Seeing Ichika start to snore on his feet, the two girls had forgotten to keep whispering.

"Feel free. Remind me to tell you I told you so afterwards."

By that time, all the preparations had been completed and the signal for the match to begin blared out loudly, Ichika almost lethargically shot out of the Hangar.

Houki repressed the urge to face palm and only frowned as she watched him, even with the catapult giving him a boost; his flight pattern swayed and stumbled around like a drunken man.

"Ichika! How is it? My ShenLong." The small girl asked, chest puffed out in pride.

"Muu….." Ichika simply lazily opened one eye to inspect his opponent before closing them again and continued to just hang like a puppet in mid air.

Rin waved her fists at his minimal reaction, "Grrr…. Are you looking down on me? I thought I would let you off easier if you apologized but you just throw my kindness back in my face? Are you ready to lose Ichika?"

"Why are you getting so pointlessly angry for? I'm just tired. Ever since long ago, I've thought that this sensitivity of yours is really annoying."

Down in the CIC, Naruto began laughing loudly, "Bwahahaha! It seems like this brother of yours becomes more blunt and honest when he is tired isn't it? Gahahaha!"

[Pang!]

"Ouchies…"

"Sh-sh-shut up, Ichika no Baka!" back in the arena, Rin exploded from her spot in anger, blindly trying to hit Ichika with her IS grade Chinese Scimitars in anger

Ichika automatically lifted his own blade to block the attack.

"Heh, that's not all ShenLong can do, you know!" another Chinese scimitar appeared in her left hand and she cocked back the newly summoned blade and slashed downwards at Ichika's undefended side.

The Byakushiki simply back flipped to avoid being bisected and lazily floated away.

"Yo-you, can you take this more seriously?"

"Mmm….. I am serious…. Can we hurry and finish this so that I can go back and sleep?"

"GYAAAH! Serious? I'M not being SERIOUS? DIE! RYUUHOU"

Chifuyu began pinching the bridge of her nose again, as she watched Ichika lethargically float around the arena, dodging a barrage of invisible bullets from the furious Chinese girl. Beside her, Naruto was laughing his ass off at the half asleep look on Ichika's strained face.

Behind her, she could feel two black, malice filled glares stabbing into the blonde by her side, not that it affected him at all. To her other side, she could hear Yamada struggling to stifle her giggles.

It was like a damn circus in here.

"ENOUGH!"

Everyone shut up. Except the laughing blonde who was enjoying this entirely too much.

[PANG!]

"Ouchies…."

"Enough you idiot." She stabbed the screen with one imperial finger and a fierce expression on her face, "Did you or did you not teach Ichika how to use an IS properly? Just look at him. He can barely lift his sword."

Maya nodded gravely, completely forgetting that she was giggling barely seconds ago, "And his opponent is using a high tech shockwave weapon too. Things look really bad for Orimura-san."

Naruto pouted, "Come on, doesn't anyone trust me at all?"

He received four blank looks.

The blonde sighed in mock disappointment, "Fine, fine, ruin my fun will you." He grabbed the mike and initiated a direct connection to Ichika's Byakushiki.

The blank looks changed to anger and ones that were questioning his sanity as the blonde began humming a funeral march into the mike.

Up on the screen, Ichika immediately froze in mid air with a fearful expression as the blonde's humming reached his ears.

Rin taking advantage of the momentary pause, immediately fired two air bullets that scored a direct hit on the stationary white IS, crowing triumphantly as she did so, "How is that!"

The stands began to cheer at the expected victory but just as soon, they fell silent again as a figure exploded out of the cloud of smoke, wide panicked eyes peered out from behind a big white kite shield with blue and gold accents as the figure sped straight for the shocked Rin, screaming something that sounded vaguely like, _"Save me from that crazy bastard!"_

In her panic, Rin began flailing her double Chinese blades at the shield and wildly firing the Ryuhou. Explosions littered the air as the white figure charged through the attacks, either blocking the shots with his shield or dodging them. Mid charge, Ichika threw his shield at the shocked girl, blocking her vision of him and ducked underneath the flailing blades, speeding past her before spinning on a dime and his blade flicked across her back twice and finishing it off with a reverse thrust.

Rin barely had time to register her shock as the double blades in her hands split into four pieces and one of her floating cannons exploded, screaming as ShenLong was badly jarred from the explosion, while the final thrust hit her back without any interference. Had it not been for her Absolute Defense, the beam sword would have stabbed completely through her middle. As it was, it only shook her badly.

"Absolute Defence activated. Orimura Ichika wins."

Everyone in the stands fell silent, even the delegates which were all expecting a devastating victory over the only male IS pilot in history but instead witnessed an amazing and decisive reversal from the male pilot.

Similarly, back in the CIC, Naruto leaned back into his seat, humming in absolutely smug satisfaction at the looks on the four stunned speechless females around him.

"Naruto. Why does my brother know how to use Absolute Dive and Accel Turn?" Chifuyu quietly asked.

"Ab-Absolute Dive? Accel Turn? What is that Orimura-sensei?" Cecilia asked fearfully.

Her burning eyes never left the grinning Naruto, Chifuyu explained flatly, "They are both high level CQC skills that were created by Naruto Namikaze…. AD involves getting to a higher elevation and instinctively turning off the IS's Passive Inertia Control, using gravity and it's in built thrusters to achieve amazing speeds impossible under the PIC. By itself, AD is incredibly destructive but its weakness is the long set up that allows any skilled opponent to see it coming. That's where AT comes in. Accel Turn, short for Accelerated Turn is the follow up maneuver. After achieving maximum speed, the pilot uses all the accumulated G-force to feint and bypass his opponent instead of a direct attack then spinning on a tiny window of opportunity and attacking from behind. The accumulated G-force from the spin is added to those from the AD; together they will amplify the user's damage output by nearly a hundredfold."

She gritted her teeth and began to stalk towards Naruto, "However this massive power comes at a cost. Because these skills involve such high speed and incredible G-force due to the inactive PIC, it's extremely dangerous for an amateur to use them too frequently. Most humans cannot handle the speed involved and instinctively slow down when making the turn required, hurting themselves in the process. People have even suffered from collapsed lungs and crushed organs due to their failure."

"Naruto. What. The. Hell. Did. You. Teach. My. Brother?" Chifuyu growled, her finger stabbing Naruto's chest with each emphasized word.

Naruto smirked, "I did what you hired me for. I trained him. There's nothing a little trauma cannot fix. Bwahahaha!"

Chifuyu growled again and was about to hit him with her folder when the entire arena was suddenly rocked by an explosion and all the lights in the CIC turned off, plunging the five into darkness and a cacophony of screaming girls. Glowing blue eyes quietly flared in the dark, switching to night vision, as he gently supported Chifuyu that had fell onto him during the quake.

Offhandedly, the dim light from those glowing blue eyes showed Chifuyu that Naruto's face was now completely devoid of smiles and laughs.

Nothing but a cold grim anger.

"Wha-what was that?" the voice sounded like Cecilia.

"Please hold on, the backup generators are coming online." This voice was Yamada, yet it held none of her usual tininess and was confident as well as forceful.

The dim glow of the screens rebooting lit the dark room.

"What was that Yamada?" Chifuyu pushed herself away from Naruto and sharply requested for an explanation.

Yamada briefly paused before continuing to rapidly tap in commands into the console, a series of loud beeps and clacks danced in symphony with her fingers, "It seems like something pierced the Arena's barrier and hit the main generators, but I don't know who. As far as I can tell, neither Rin-san's ShenLong nor Orimura-san's Byakushiki is capable of anything like that. Ah! Visuals are returning."

Everyone looked at the screen as it slowly brightened again.

"Wha-what is that?"

A towering mecha, swathed completely in black and heavy armor that obscured the pilot's identity and powerful looking equipment was standing still in the middle of a crater where it had landed. It was currently firing bright pink colored beam attacks at a shadow taking cover behind a steel beam. Yamada grabbed the mike, "Orimura-san! Rin-san! Can you hear me?"

A few tense moments of silence passed when a crackling voice replied over the speakers, "A-ah… we're ok."

Chifuyu allowed herself a single small and relieved sigh before putting back on her game face, "Orimura, what's the situation? Where is Rin?"

"I got Rin out of the way, but she's unconscious. I think I hit her too hard."

"Understood. Emergency evacuation protocols have already been initiated. Get out of there with Rin as soon as possible, Orimura. Let the teachers handle this."

Ichika's fully alert face finally reappeared on the screen as he peered out from behind his cover, "I…. I know, but, I have to stay here and keep that thing occupied until everyone has evacuated." He glanced over to where he could see a mass of female bodies were centered around the closed steel gates barring them escape from the Arena, "And with those closed, even if I tried to escape with RIn, I don't think we're going anywhere in a hurry."

Chifuyu cursed quietly, "Yamada, what's going on? Why can't those doors open?"

"Someone has hacked into our systems. The Arena's shields have been turned up to max and all emergency floodgates have been activated but the stand's blast shields have failed to activate for some reason." The green haired teacher paused and swallowed, "Until we recover control over the system, no one is leaving or entering the Arena."

"Naruto, can you do anything?"

Everyone looked around to find the usually carefree blonde. Chifuyu only needed one glance to tell that those glowing blue eyes were not present.

The black haired teacher rubbed her temples; she should have guessed what would have happened when she saw that look on his face. The first time she had seen it, the blonde had launched out solo and destroyed 28 research facilities with nothing but two damned knives and chip on his shoulder the size of Australia.

"Tch. Orimura, just sit tight and try not to provoke it too much. I understand you need to keep its attention away from the students but with Rin out of commission, you do NOT have the support to do anything too drastic. Just wait."

"Wait? Wait for what?"

"Knowing that idiot? A very big explosion."

******Fata Morgana******

The sounds of leather shoes slapping against the marble floor echoed through the dark hallways as a tall figure strode calmly, "Delta, what is the status on my MPPs?"

"Only Alpha pack is currently fully usable. However it you have left it in your room."

"Damn. Open secure connection to Leader."

A new feminine voice entered the strange conversation as the AI did as ordered, "Naru-chan?"

"Leader, I need two favors."

"Mouu… I keep telling you not to call me that. Anyway what do you need Naru-chan?"

Naruto resisted the urge to face palm and calmly replied, "I need you to go to my room and retrieve a briefcase on my table and bring it to me but before that, can you lend me your lance?"

The sounds of a few whispered commands reached his ears, "Permission granted Naru-chan. But you owe me a nice dinner and massage for this." The voice lightly teased.

A light blue staff appeared in gray clawed gauntlets, "Understood." With a hurried thanks, he cut off the connection and continued, "Delta, scan structural integrity. Find weakest point."

A small revolving 3D map of the Arena appeared under a small window, it didn't take long for the AI to reply, "South West. Gate D. Recent repairs have not been finished. Structural integrity is predicted to be 40% weaker."

"Mmmm, send information to Leader and Yuki's IS. Now let's get cracking." A light green glow began to emanate from fractured wings and a tall bipedal figure with a birdlike helmet leapt up into the sky.

******Fata Morgana******

Ichika sighed, "What the hell does that mean? Big explosion? Anyway…. Have to do something…." He glanced downwards where an unconscious Rin was cradled in his left arm. She was small enough to be cradled by Byakushiki's gauntlet and if the situation hadn't been so dire, Ichika would have been tempted to laugh loudly.

He had been periodically throwing rocks at the mecha, hoping to keep its attention on him rather than go after the lightly protected students in the stands. It was at times like these that he really wished that the Byakushiki had some kind of ranged options. Ichika resolved to ask that blonde maniac whether there was anything that could be done.

If he survived.

[Crack!]

The male pilot paled, he had been so caught up in keeping the giant IS's attention on him, that he had neglected to check his cover. The steel beam of the Arena was slowly cracking under the black IS's heavy onslaught.

"Ah, this is bad."

The Byakushiki dashed out from under the groaning metal beam and began heading for the nearest cover, Ichika desperately balancing between shielding the girl in its arms with the Byakushiki's wings and shield even as they were pelted by a rain of beams. Glancing downwards at the inconspicuous meter floating at the bottom of his HUD, he let out a strangled groan, his power source wouldn't hold out much longer.

There was only 119 units left, something he more or less expected due to the battle with Rin.

"Whoever Chifuyu-nee is counting on better come soon." Ichika grumbled as he swiftly glided under an upraised slab of rock.

A small beep alerted Ichika to an incoming message, "Spam Mail? Who the hell has time to send spam mail?"

One clawed finger tapped the floating icon and the text message opened, "To all students. Stay away from the South West Gate if you do not want to die."

"Huh?"

[BOOM!]

"Wha-what?"

He carefully peered out from behind his slab or rock, from his position, it seemed like the entire south west side of the arena had just exploded into pieces.

A six feet tall armored figure darted out of the black smoke on an unerringly straight collision course with the black behemoth, two thin and slender rapier like blades extended in from its wrists and crossed in front of the Delta's pointed helmet, "Na-Naruto?"

The Delta swiftly ducked under a massive punch and swiveled, the first blade slashed the fist's wrist while the second followed it up with a fierce thrust with little to no effect. Without even pausing to rethink the lack of damage, the Delta evaded another punch and flipped over the behemoth, repeating the slash and thrust maneuver on its helmet.

Landing behind the behemoth, the armored Orbital Frame spun elegantly despite its menacing appearance and slashed the Black IS in a tornado of blades before leaping backwards out of the Black IS's range with a burst of its reverse thrusters.

"Ichika, you alright?"

Startled by the blonde's sudden comm channel in his HUD, he could only nod silently.

The bird like helmet turned on its segmented neck to chance a glance in Ichika's general direction and issued a curt order, "Good, take Rin and get out of here. The South West gate is open. Your job is to help everyone else escape as safely and orderly as possible."

Ichika nodded silently again.

"What are you waiting for? GO!"

"Ha-HAI!" THE Byakushiki immediately took off with a spurt of speed, leaving the Delta to face the intruder alone.

"Hmmm…. So who's your sponsor?"

The behemoth did not deign to reply and simply lumbered forth, continuously firing its shoulder lasers at the advancing Delta.

The stubby wings flared with green light as the Delta gave a sudden burst of speed, deflecting stray beam shots with its armor plates and charged straight into close quarters combat with the behemoth due to its complete lack of any armaments outside of the two slender blades mounted on its wrists. Acrobatically evading the massive fists and point blank pink bolts of light, the Delta literally scratched and hacked its way to the black IS's body before leaping up like a cat and stabbing its left blade into its chest.

When the IS failed to deactivate and one large fist grasped the Delta's left arm, Naruto was stunned, "Wha-what? It's unmanned?"

The other huge hammer like fist swung and repeatedly slammed directly onto Delta's chest plate, denting it badly.

Grunting, Naruto ignored the pain and wedged his free blade into the huge fist's grip on his left arm and jerked violently, cutting off a thumb. But before he could escape, another massive punch rocketed towards his undefended side. In a split second, Naruto twisted in mid air and crossed the blades in front of him, using his blades to take the blow instead of his chest.

The Delta rocketed backwards and slammed into the elevated concrete walls with a massive explosion of dust and stone chips.

The unmanned drone simply stood there waiting instead of taking the initiative to attack the downed Naruto, cocking its head as if with curiosity as the figure in grey segmented armor slowly limped out of the dust, the blades on its wrists had shattered from the force of the drone's final blow, leaving only two short stubs of nano carbon steel, effectively leaving Delta without any weapons short of its own fists.

"Mhh… this is rather complicated isn't it?" Naruto muttered as he assessed the somewhat bad situation.

**Play Macross Frontier OST – Aimo (Battle Version)**

"Naru-chan~ Catch~"

A smile spread behind the black glass helmet as Naruto perked up considerably, "Oooh, good timing, Leader!" the Delta leapt upwards to snatch the briefcase out of the air, giving a grateful wave at a girl with blue hair as it did so.

"Delta, Optimize MPP."

A small but quickly filling progress bar appeared at the top right corner of his HUD.

"Optimized. Mirage Alpha, activate."

The Delta's dented armor briefly glowed with a incandescent white light. When the glow finally died down, the grey segmented armor had been replaced with white ones and augmented armor plates had appeared over its chest, legs and arms, but the biggest change could be seen on its. The once stubby wings had been replaced by large white aerodynamic fins and in between them was a large thruster.

The Delta stood up to its full height of 189 cm as Naruto ran a basic scan on the new augments.

Cricking its segmented neck, Delta radiated smugness as it hunched over in a ready position, "Let's see if you can catch up big guy."

The thruster flared with a brilliant white flame and armored figure soared into the sky with unbelievable speed.

The black helmet of the intruder followed Naruto into the sky, as if tracking his progress. A slow but loud rumbling began to fill the arena as jet thrusters behind the black IS started up, belching smoke and flames as it slowly rose into the air.

Spreading the fins, Naruto began a sheer turn and whipped out a rifle, taking barely a second to aim and fire a green beam straight into one of the gun barrels mounted on the Black IS's shoulder.

Grinning as his opponent shuddered, Naruto darted, dodging pink beams in a corkscrew motion, the moment he flew pass the intruder, a beam saber appeared in his off hand and swiftly sliced off another gun barrel.

He felt a fierce grin spread on his lips, reveling in the freedom he always felt while flying as he flew circles around the behemoth, slowly shaving off pieces of its armor and destroying his cannons with well placed shots and slashes. Deciding he had played enough, he angled the Delta to fly straight up in to the sky. At the peak of his momentum, he cut off all thrusters, hanging amongst the clouds with his armored arms spread like some disfigured bird, toppling over in slow motion as he began his descent.

Folding his arms to his side as he fell out of the sky, all thrusters reactivated and flared with maximum power.

The behemoth was swiveling in confusion, looking for its target when it heard a low whine that was steadier getting louder and louder.

It looked up just in time for the Delta to smash straight into its torso, white augmented claws pierced its weakest point; the crack in its heavy armor, directly in the center of its chest, that had made earlier with a slender rapier.

The Delta's claws exploded from its back in a spray of black and red fluid, clutching a small black orb, black broken cables dangling uselessly from it, in its clawed grips.

******Fata Morgana******

Chifuyu shook her head in amused exasperation as she watched the black Infinite Stratos and the white Orbital Frame start an aerial dog fight, the bird like OF easily out speeding and destroying the intruder's in built shoulder and wrist mounted cannons with precise and sharp bursts of bolts from his newly equipped beam rifle before darting in to systematically tear the black IS apart with its sabers.

Naruto hadn't been lying when that girl in his combat class asked about who would win in a fight between them. Without any external influences, she would have won through sheer difference in specs alone. But the Delta was not called a prototype for nothing. It may have lacked the Equalizers for any extra fire power but Naruto had compensated by creating isolated special purpose platforms, or MPPs, Multi Purpose Packs that boosted the Delta's abilities for the required situation. The Alpha, as he called it, had been created for extreme speed and extending the Delta's limited atmospheric flight time, augmenting its offense with two high output Type 72 Stilleto beam rifles and two Vajra beam sabers.

And just to take the piss out of his opponents, he had another 19 Packs.

In the words of a certain French Official after Mirage Beta had stomped a mudhole through the entire French IS Legion and walked it dry, "C'est quoi ce bordel ? C'est totalement injuste !"

Naruto's reply had been short and sweet: That's the point, fatass. Now are you going to listen or do I have to shove my foot up your oversized posterior as well?

With the Alpha alone, Naruto's Delta was currently faster than any known IS, short of the Byakushiki.

She chuckled, fully aware that the Byakushiki had actually been built based on combat data of the Mirage Alpha, and that was only because he had given her permission to use it. Which was why she knew, despite her complaints to the contrary, Naruto was probably the best person around to teach Ichika how to use it.

Chifuyu shut down the screen and began to walk out of the CIC just as Naruto executed a perfect, vertically perpendicular Absolute Dive.

"Or-Orimura-sensei? Where are you going?"

"Out. To help the evacuation. There's no point watching anymore. We might as well send in a cleanup crew right now."

"I see…"

Yamada glanced back at the dead screens one last time before hurrying after her superior.

******Fata Morgana******

**=)**

Like no like? Review please.

_C'est quoi ce bordel ! C'est totalement injuste? – What the fuck is that! How the hell is that fair?_


	3. Wasted Tears

**Fata Morgana Chapter 3**

**Wasted Tears**

**Disclaimer : I don't own anything. Don't own Infinite Stratos or Naruto. I do own the concepts and plots that I introduced into the story though.**

A quick update. A short chapter that outlines the beginnings of the next arc and so that I can get back to studying.

**Soundtrack List**

Ayumi Hamasaki – (Miss)understood

Ayumi Hamasaki – Progress (I recommend you get a nice clear version to listen to for this particular one)

******Fata Morgana*******

"Before we begin classes for today," the usually timid teacher paused, "I have two announcements. The first concerns Ichika Orimura personally. Namikaze-sensei has indicated a need to take some time off from his duties due to the damage his OF sustained during yesterday's battles, so Ichika-san, you will resume taking Combat classes with the others for the foreseeable future."

"Halelujah! Amen! Happy Kwanza! Namutaba! Peanut Butter!" Ichika began thanking every divine existence he could think of in a secluded corner of class.

Meanwhile, in complete contrast with Ichika's giddiness, the majority of the class wasn't happy, "Eeeh~? Naruto-sama was hurt? How? He was so cool and strong yesterday!" the ruckus of girls' voices constantly asking about how was it possible for the male instructor to get hurt failed to cease until Chifuyu finally stepped in with a sharp and authoritative command, "Enough."

Her burning gaze swept across the silent classroom before elaborating, "As Namikaze-sensei has already outlined to you during his first class, his Orbital Frame is an obsolete prototype. As such, it lacks the regenerative capabilities as well as formidable shields of the IS and he needs to take time off to repair it manually. I am sure that he will appreciate your concern, but please settle down and direct your opinions to him when he returns."

At the back of the class, from beside his on-the-spot altar to the Gods, Ichika gave his sister a strange look. She was acting weirdly. The fact that he hadn't felt a hit from her hard and ever present holy book yet was immutable proof that something was bothering his sister despite the fact that she looked as cool and unruffled as usual.

Her glare swept around the class for another circuit before giving Yamada a nod and returning to her corner.

"Ah…. Thank you Orimura-sensei. Anyway, I'm sure everyone will be happy about the second announcement. I am happy to introduce to you a new transfer student from France; Charles Dunois-san."

A slender young man gracefully slipped in to heavy applause from the girls in class, a smile spreading on his delicate features at the warm welcome, "Ah, good afternoon everyone. I am Charles Dunois. Glad to meet you."

"HIS SOOOO HANDSOME!"

Ah girls. Such a complicated species capable of incredible mood swings.

*******Fata Morgana******

"Ah, I'm sorry about our class. They are genuinely good people, but the girls can get a bit rowdy sometimes. Especially when it comes to good looking people."

"Ahaha…. That's weird. But I suppose I should thank you for the compliment." The new transfer student, Charles, replied in Japanese with a strange accent.

"No, no… I was just stating a fact," Ichika gave his companion an uncomfortable look; "You look really… delicate. Is that a French thing?"

"Ah, yes, yes it is."

"Anyway," Ichika came to a halt and flourished one hand towards a small bungalow, one of the more casual ones located in the IS Academy's residential area. Usually the units here were used for important visitors but it seemed as though the Academy's Directors had given Naruto and any male pilots to use one.

"This is where we're staying. Originally we should be staying in the dorms, but because a new male teacher joined the staff, all the boys have been relocated to this bungalow for the sake of convenience until we can get dedicated residences."

"I... I see. This male instructor, he was sick was he not? I heard the announcements before I came in."

"Yeah, we had a skirmish yesterday after some unknown IS broke into the Academy. Namikaze-sensei was supposedly injured while fighting it off." Charles gave his new friend a weird glance as the black haired boy dropped into a huddle, "Personally I doubt that monster could ever get hurt...Anyway, please come on and make yourself at home." The taller male invited the transfer student in with a traditional Japanese greeting.

Just as they were passing by the living room, Ichika froze. Was that his sister's voice he had just heard? Curiosity burned as he carefully flattened himself against the wall and inched over to the door, making absolutely sure not to make any suspicious sounds at all, compelling Charles to look at him strangely again.

"Orimura-san?"

"Shhh..." Ichika put a finger to his lips, signalling for him to be quiet and beckoned for Charles to come closer. From the slightly ajar door, Charles could hear voices coming out from inside the living room and together, both eavesdroppers carefully peered in through the crack in the door.

******Fata Morgana******

**Play Ayumi Hamasaki – (Miss)understood**

"Are you alright?"

Naruto merely grunted in reply as he slowly twisted the magnetic screw driver in his chest, slowly pulling out a broken piece of some sort. The Delta's dented chest plate was lying on the table in front of the blonde, along with three cups of tea, exposing the innards of his chest cavity to world. Folding open like a grotesque imitation of a cupboard, anyone looking at Naruto would be able see inside his chest was a neat yet sickening array of cables, wires, two lungs, a beating heart encased in glass of some sort, and a black orb, about the size of an apple, glowing with neon blue lines, situated beside his heart.

Chifuyu grimaced, no matter how many times he did it front of her; she would never get used to seeing him like this. Originally, there had only been minimal invasive surgery to replace some deadened nerves and dead organs before Naruto would be able to move his limbs again with the help of a nano-steel exoskeleton via the black orb implanted in his chest and spine. The orb where the AI, Autonomous Quantum Recalibration and Maintenance Artificial Intelligence, version **Zero – QB009**, codename; Delta, was located.

She glanced at the portrait of a tall blonde with his hand on a beautiful redhead sitting on a chair hanging on a wall and muttered a soft apology at her rebellious thoughts. But because he couldn't afford to wait and heal as the situation worsened around him; as the world become drunk and giddy on a revolutionary piece of technology that was based on his parents' spiralling out of control legacy, the blonde had done surgery on himself.

Removing a lot of weakened and ineffective organs and atrophied limbs, replacing them with highly efficient mechanical versions to accelerate healing and incorporating the frame of what would become the future Delta's Armour Mode in a self designed process.

As years passed, he had began fine tuning the procedure; replacing his muscle fibres with heavy meta-polymer muscle weave, life support webbing, auxiliary power cells in his thighs, quantum optics interface under his jaw and eyes, reinforced skeletal structure, and nano-titanium latticing underneath his skin to enhance combat effectiveness and defences even without activating Delta's armour mode.

And those were only the ones she knew off.

It had been a gruelling process, just hearing it being described to her had been enough to make the ice and steel Chifuyu wince and beg him to stop, but the indubitable result was in front of her. Less than 60% of his body was now made of flesh and blood.

In short, he was a walking arsenal.

He often joked that he could even lift a car with one finger, but he could no longer swim because of how heavy his body had become and though it was not intended to do so, guilt would flood Chifuyu's chest every so often upon hearing the tasteless joke.

Her ponderings were interrupted by a sigh of relief from the blonde as he successfully replaced the broken piece and refitted the dented chest plate with a soft hydraulic hiss. Sipping some tea to wet his dry throat, he gave a short order, "Delta, run integrity scan and nominal systems check please."

The three people in the room waited silently, the only sound in the room came from the humming orb in Naruto's torso.

A smooth robotic tone broke the tense silence, _[Right arm, integrity minus 25%, Right Leg, integrity minus 16%, Torso, integrity minus 43%. Expected time to full recovery; 23 days. Systems; All green. Summary; Do not get hit by big fists that punch like trucks.]_

"Yeap. I'm alright! By the way, Leader, next time I'm doing maintenance, can you please don't poke my lungs? It's rather ticklish."

"Ehe~"

Chifuyu couldn't help but face palm at his incredibly carefree tone.

"Well, it looks like I'm going to have to recover on the road." Naruto summed it up cheerfully after the girl with short blue haired had removed her finger from his innards.

"On the road? What the hell do you mean on the road?" Chifuyu echoed angrily.

"Relax; I won't be gone for longer than a week. I just need to talk to someone. That Black IS; I want to get in contact with some informants to ask about it." His face blanked, but everyone present could see the anger in it.

"What do you mean? We haven't been able to get any data from the remains yet but wasn't that just Tabane fooling around again?" She retorted sharply.

Naruto shook his head, "You know as well as I do that Tabane wouldn't use something so crude..." The blonde winced at the blank look he was receiving from the second member of their childhood trio, "Ok... so she would."

At the questioning look from the blue haired girl, Naruto elaborated, "If it wasn't a hypothetical question that she can use her brain to solve, she would attempt to beat the crap out of it with whatever heavy artillery she can get her hands on until it goes away ala Mahou Shojo ..." he noted wryly, "But that's not the point. While we were fighting, did the Black IS show any signs of retreating at all? Even after its defeat looked imminent?"

"...No."

"Correct. Add to that the fact that it was equipped with crude generic and unregistered armour and equipment, used old fashioned jet propulsion to fly, was slow, clunky and had pathetic shields, the most logical conclusion I can draw is the fact that that Black IS was nothing but expendable bait, used to illegally gather combat data, probably from Ichika. Which counts out Tabane!" The blonde sighed and stood up with a tired groan, "But that wasn't what concerned me. That IS, despite its crude equipment set up, its AI was very good. Its combat pattern was nearly mid or late 2nd generation level. No one has ever been able to generate a pirated core with that kind of quality yet. I know it was probably inevitable especially with the current way things are going, but I didn't expect it to be so soon."

Chifuyu rubbed her temples, "In other words, if they can afford to expend something like that, we can expect them to have illegal but fully functioning 3rd generation models or at least something close to it. Most likely a Private Military Company or an affiliated company. Only they would have enough funds and be able to slip through the red tape to do something like that."

Naruto shot her a praising smile, "As expected from Japan's best IS pilot. You don't miss a lot."

She gave him a glare, "Shut up you. I understand that this is bad, but what does it have to do with you? You are a teacher here now." She glanced at the quiet blue haired girl apologetically, "This kind of things are best left up to people who deal with this kind of things isn't it?"

The girl shrugged with a disappointed frown, "Even though it has been only ten years since the inception of IS, or rather, because of it, we have yet to be able to field a fully organized and effective IS counter terrorist team. It was only after Tou-sama hired Naru-chan a few years ago that things got better; he has been reorganizing and training our teams while taking on missions that were deemed too dangerous for our fledgling IS department. I don't like it... but Naru-chan really is the only one I can depend on in this kind of situations..." She frowned, "Even if that were not the case, international laws regarding non-accredited IS cores are rather murky because of its newness. They forbid stealing and hacking into existing cores, but because no one expected someone to be successful, creating one's own core is not against the law. It's something of a grey area."

Chifuyu sighed in realization, "And the governments' won't help either because they do not acknowledge the existence of rogue IS cores, leaving such matters up to the IS Academy. Or to be more accurate, they are hoping to be able to benefit from those very same rogue cores rather than depend on the remaining 467 cores that Tabane made."

Sarashiki cocked her head cutely, "Remaining?"

Chifuyu snorted in amusement and clarified the phrase, although Ichika noted a strange hint of pride in her voice, "Originally when Tabane went public with the technology, it came with no restrictions other than only women could pilot it because of a programming glitch. The world's governments ran with it and created hundreds of thousands of cores. One certain idiot got pissed off by their callousness. So he jumped out of his death bed, went out and destroyed every single one of them, 28 research facilities and even more factories. Then he literally forced them to create the Alaska treaty. Ever since then, overtly, they all endorse the treaty so that the blonde idiot doesn't go after them but covertly, the world itself has been in a Cold War for the past ten years, even if the public doesn't realize it, every country subtly or not so subtly trying to find loopholes to get ahead of the other."

Sarashiki blinked before gaping at the embarrassed blonde, "Wait, YOU'RE серая катастрофа_? The Seryi Katastrofy?"_

The blonde simply frowned, "I really hate that name. At the time, they were all only equipped with conventional weapons, even without the IS's standard energy shields, it really wasn't a problem for Delta. I even felt bad for bullying them like th-"

[Bam!]

Both of them were jerked out of their conversation and turned to stare at Chifuyu who had been the one to slam her palm on the table, taking deep calming breaths and glaring at the two of them as she did so, "**Point being**, this isn't your job. We've just predicted the existence of 3rd generation cores, or close to it. Fighting unskilled school children with 3rd generation models is one thing but your Delta couldn't even keep up without the help of an MMP just fighting that one expendable machine so how do you expect to fight them?"

Naruto smiled sadly, "Up till now, I've kept up with machines far more advanced then the Delta using the MPPs, wits and skills to my advantage. But as loath as I am to say it, by my own predictions, I'm fully aware that once the 5th generation models, maybe even as early as the mid 4th generation models, has been truly rolled out, the sheer difference in ability will render even the advantage my MPPs give me, null." He shook his head tiredly as Chifuyu quirked an eyebrow at him, he sounded like he actually agreed with her, but his next words had her rubbing her temples exasperatedly again, "I know that, but I can't stop. At least not until we manage to get true and proper regulations and a reliable peace keeping force in place."

His gaze lowered to his chest and he chuckled, "Until then, even if we are turned to an obsolete piece of scrap, we'll keep fighting. That's our duty as Minato Namikaze and Kushina Namikaze's children, ain't that right, partner?"

_[... Understood... Partner.]_

Naruto grinned happily.

**Play Ayumi Hamasaki – Progress**

Her fists trembled in anger by her side. Glaring at the blonde, she bitterly asked him a question she had asked him many times before, "...Was something like this really worth it? Even knowing you would lose in the end, why fight? Dammit, why **you**?"

Sensing the tension in the room, the girl with short blue hair quietly crept out of the room to leave the two friends to talk privately.

Or so they thought.

Once outside, she immediately motioned for the other two to keep quiet and joined them in eavesdropping on the two adults with a wide smile.

Naruto chuckled sadly, "It has its bad days and its good days. But if I had to say, then yeah it was."

An incredibly pained and conflicted expression crossed her usually cool face, "But... your body. I know, I know and I can understand the logic, but... maybe it's because my parents are worthless fools that I can't empathize, but seeing you like this... When I see my friend like this, I can't help but want to be angry, to hate and scream at the world in your place. To fight a battle that even you know you will lose."

The taller blonde slowly walked over to the window, the chest plate on his torso disappearing with a soft shattering of polygons, "It's alright Yuki. You don't have to hate or scream or anything..."

He slowly placed one clawed hand on the glass window with a soft sigh, watching the vibrant and colourful world right outside the window with intense blue eyes. As if trying to burn the image into his memory for the day that he knew he would finally be...well and truly defeated.

The sharp metallic tips creating a soft screeching sound on the fibreglass as he accidentally scratched it when he clenched his fist.

"Why are you so damn carefree? That's what I hate most about you! It's so damn ANNOYING! Taking this kind of responsibility and burden with such a carefree smile!"

This argument was one they had had countless times before, "Jaa...Who can I hate, Yuki? Who can I blame? My parents? The people who brought me into this incredible colourful world? Or Tabane? My ditzy genius childhood friend that finished my parent's legacy and saved my life with it? The world? The world that gave me such vibrant colours, so much beauty, fun times and good friends? Or Humanity itself? Should I overlook those innocent ones for those filled with incredible greed and lust for power?" he turned around to gaze at his shaking friend, "Or should I hate myself? For being born in this situation, for being the only one capable of bearing this burden?"

The blonde whose dark figure was framed against the evening sky wore a benevolent smile that belied the depth of his words. Without his customary sunglasses, his clear diamond like irises radiated a clear warm sapphire glow, interspersed with ruby sparks reflected from the evening sky. The red stained sky behind him only served to make that scene look even more powerful, angelic even.

It made her so angry.

So... so...

When there was no reply, Naruto turned back around to continue staring out the window, heedless of his childhood friend's inner turmoil.

[Bam!]

Naruto looked over his shoulder to see Chifuyu with one fist planted in the wall, "I... I know. But I just can't help being angry for you, you stupid, carefree, bat shit crazy bastard. I... I..."

The words she wanted to say would not come out. To say them, would be the same as throwing mud on his dignity and his resolve. She could not do it no matter how much she wanted him to be safe.

The blonde smiled softly as he strode over his friend and enveloped her in his arms, "Don't worry, I understand. This world... I want your students to see this bright and warm world, Yuki. To continue seeing this idealized world where everything is peaceful, where the IS is nothing more than a revolutionary piece of equipment for enjoyable competitions. That's why I'll keep bearing this burden by myself. Even if the rest of the world hates me for being a vigilante, even if I have been shunned from every country for my actions, I will be happy as long as the next generation is happy and responsible. As long as I can watch their smiles, I will be content that my parents' gifts have been properly received by the next generation."

She clung to him, unsure whether or not the warmth she felt emanating from his cold artificial metallic limbs and chest was imagined or not, but she wanted it to be real. Like so many years ago when he had comforted her after her own parents, so different from his, had left her alone with a baby brother. Taking a deep rattling breath she allowed a few tears to leak onto his chest.

She would cry for him.

Because he could not.

Not anymore.

******Fata Morgana******

Outside, three people sat on a bench silently, a black haired boy, a blonde haired gentleman and a blue haired girl. The two males stared ahead with unseeing eyes, dazed after hearing the conversation.

As she swung her legs in a carefree manner, the blue haired girl looked up into the sky and suddenly spoke blandly, "Don't treat him any different. He really doesn't like it. And even if you try and hide it, he will find out sooner or later."

"Wha-what?"

The girl grinned freely, "Just keep smiling. Enjoy your life here and keep smiling, then make sure your friends and family don't misuse the IS. That's all he needs."

She leapt up and began skipping away.

"Wh-who was that Orimura-san?"

"I... don't know."

"Ah..."

Ichika glanced at his companion in concern, "Are you alright? You seem really pale."

Charles clenched her trembling hands, "I-I'm fine. Sh-should we go back now?"

"I guess. Nee-san has probably calmed back down by now."

"Hu-huh? That woman in black was your sister? That means the other teacher was your brother in law?"

Ichika spluttered indignantly, "Wha-what? No! Their just childhood friends... I think."

******Fata Morgana******

"Ah... so this is the new transfer student, Charles Dunois-san. He'll be staying in the third room."

"Nice to meet you, Namikaze-sensei." The young blonde sketched a brief but polite bow as he fidgeted under the other blonde's stare.

Said blonde watched Charles carefully with narrowed eyes, before the glint disappeared and was replaced by a wide welcoming grin, "Ara, it's good to meet you too. I hope you'll enjoy your three years here at IS Academy, eh, _Charles-san_."

The grin was far too cheeky and knowing for Charles to be truly comfortable with, neither was the emphasis placed on his first name. The Dunois' heir apparent gave an uncomfortable smile and nodded at the welcome.

"Also, before you get settled in, I suggest you change the kind of perfume you are using. It's too... _feminine, _if you get my drift."

Charles fidgeted harder, "A-Ah, I will take your advice under due consideration. Would you excuse me? I feel rather tired after such a busy day."

"No, no, it's my fault for keeping you up for so long, _Charles-san._"

The younger blonde nearly scrambled out of the room, unwilling to stay another second in the same room with the entirely too sharp teacher.

"What was that about?"

"Kukuku, he must be really tired. Why don't you go... _help_ him? I dare you to barge in without knocking. I freaking dare you."

"Wh-why are you grinning like a shark?"

"Kukukuku, puberty. Bwahahahaha!"

"You insane bastard."

The only remaining blonde in the room pretended to flush and mock fluttered his lashes, "Why, if you keep praising me like that, I might even fall for you."

"Gah! Stay away from me you crazy ass bastard!"

Naruto only chuckled as Chifuyu's little brother scrambled out of the room as fast as his classmate.

"Kukuku, looks like there's a lot of things that is going to happen." The blonde turned back to the terminal on his table and began typing away as he subconsciously mumbled to himself.

Only two words stood out above the jumble of calculations and text.

**Mirage Omega.**

******Fata Morgana******

**Author's Note. **

серая катастрофа– The Grey Catastrophe

Like the mood whiplash?

The emotion and power of words, is truly something to behold when someone knows how to use them isn't it?

By the way, two little easter eggs in this chapter, wonder who will find it.

And yes, it's rather short but it closes up the Prologue very nicely. That and I wanted to get back to studying. At 4 am in the morning. Plus it was a suitable place to stop, a nice stop gap filler that will nicely push off the next arc.

**Author's note 2; got some requests for how Naruto looks like in this fic. Posted the picture on profile.**


	4. Glass Walls

**Fata Morgana Chapter 4 **

**Glass Walls**

**Disclaimer : Do not own anything. Naruto/IS is the intellectual property of their original creators. Only the original type concepts I may or may not introduce into the story.**

Had some time off before the next exam, so I decided to finish off Chapter 4, anyway, a little exposition; Infinite Stratos has always been an interesting little topic to me but I never really liked the anime, manga or even the light novel. To me, it was a pretty standard harem comedy fare, with a less than stellar protagonist and rather bland one dimensional girls. Well... he wasn't that wimpy in the Manga but still.

The conflicts and development was too cheesy, too contrived and felt rather fake. They talked too much, the girls spent way too much time wailing on Ichika and the battles were essentially a flashy, scripted way to force cheesy, standard Aesop's down the audience's throat. Really, take out what little humanoid mecha and battles there was in the media and you got a standard harem comedy. What was the damn point of putting them in then?

That's why what really intrigued me was the setting itself. There was so much potential outside of the rather light and fluffy world Izuru Yumizuru tried to portray in IS.

Ahem... The reason I'm saying this now is because I never really intended on developing Ichika and his girls too much, so I'll apologize first in case you came here wanting to read about Ichika and so on.

**Soundtrack List**

**Yuki Kajiura - Epitaph**

******Fata Morgana******

Opaque eyes snapped open, causing the blue circuits planted in clear diamond irises to start glowing in a soft neon blue hue.

"If you want to kill me, do it soon. I have to wake up early tomorrow."

His gaze slowly travelled from the ceiling to the shadow in a corner of his room where his night vision highlighted a slim figure holding a glinting steel knife in a shaky grip.

"You... Arggh!" the figure lunged forward.

Two fingers deftly caught the kitchen knife's blade and flipped it out of the figure's hands before wrapping around his attacker's wrists. As the knife arced through the air, moonlight glinting off its polished steel surface, Naruto's other hand reached up and nimbly caught it's edge with two fingers.

"Kuuu..."

Without missing a beat, Naruto flipped it handle first and slipped it back into his attacker's grip.

"Wha?"

Without even bothering to sit up from the bed, Naruto began to speak in a lecturing tone that was highly reminiscent to a teacher and yet completely inappropriate to the situation, "That's not how you stab someone." He reversed her grip on the blade's handle and made sure her fingers were wound tightly around it, "When your target is lying down, use a downward stabbing motion with a backhand grip on the knife. The way you were holding it just now is better for a frontal thrusting motion but if you tried it on a prone target, you'd just hurt your wrist."

He made a shooing motion, as if ordering his attacker to back away and try again, "Go ahead, try it now."

"You... You're really insane aren't you?"

Closing his eyes, he lazily lifted one hand without even a hint of hesitation, keeping its thumb a tiny distance away from its pointer finger, "Just a bit."

"..."

"Ok... More than a bit. Too much gun powder is bad. Fun... but bad."

Blinking slowly, the shadowy figure slowly moved back one or two steps, not even trying to understand the whimsical sentence she had just heard before charging again with a sharp yell. The gleaming knife in her hands making a half moon arc with its sharp point headed straight for Naruto's beating heart; her target staying completely still, relaxed and not even trying to make it **look **like he was going to struggle for his life.

The blade never reached his heart.

Its metal tip shook violently barely centimetres away from even piercing his skin.

"...What's wrong? Aren't you going to kill me?"

"..."

A small smile softened his visage as he lifted one hand to ruffle her soft yellow hair playfully, completely ignoring the fact that she had just been trying to kill him and that she was currently shaking violently, "That's a good thing. The weight of a human life isn't meant to be something for a pure person to bear."

After a silent moment of petting her head, he snapped his fingers as if just realizing something, "Ah, I forgot to ask. Why did you want to kill me?"

The weeping girl didn't bother to answer him as she smacked his hand away and ran out of the room, allowing the room to be silent again.

Naruto fluffed up his pillow, fully intending on simply going back to sleep but his ever present partner interrupted him with a bland tone.

_[Isn't asking the reason WHY she wanted to kill you supposed to be done BEFORE you let her try to kill you?]_

"Really? There's a procedure for that kind of stuff?"

_[...]_

"Heeeh... You learn something new every day. By the way, send a request to the mansion. Tell **Isobu** to do a full background check on her."

_[Understood. What will you do now?]_

"Mmmh, go back to bed. Sleeeepy. Yaaawn."

_[...]_

******Fata Morgana******

"You... You... What are you doing here? I thought you had to go out and contact someone?" Chifuyu thundered angrily.

"Yeah... and I did it?"

"What?"

"Why is it so surprising? I just needed to talk to someone. I don't need days for that. Hello, '21st century' ring any bells?" Naruto muttered with a roll of his eyes.

"You... you... GAH!"

As Naruto watched his friend stomp off in a fury, he grinned, "Must be a bad day for her, neh Honne-chan?"

The girl purring on his lap just nodded and pushed her head back under his hand, urging him to keep petting her.

"Speaking of which, can you get off? Please?"

She shook her head and continued purring under his hand. Naruto sighed, he had walked to the cafeteria for breakfast and was just about to dig into a plate of delicious looking waffles when Honne and her two friends had ambushed him, all three of them asking if he was ok. The girl who was still clad in her cute animal like pyjamas, long puffy sleeves that covered her hands and sleepy eyes had looked so adorably cute... like a sleepy cat or a fluffy animal of some kind.

So much so that his hand had automatically lifted to pet her after giving them a quick reassurance that he was fine so that he could return to his breakfast. Only things hadn't quite worked out the way he wanted and the girl had followed his hand, resulting in her climbing and curling up onto his lap. Giving her a weird look had done absolutely nothing to discourage her so he was forced to keep petting her.

She had even hissed at Chifuyu when he had stopped petting the girl on his lap in order to talk to his friend.

The more he petted her, the louder the vibrations coming from her throat.

Meanwhile, her two friends were swooning in the background and he could already see a line forming up for their turn to get petted by the resident bishounen teacher.

"Crap."

In the end he had been forced to awkwardly feed himself with only one hand. That was the easy part.

The hard part was convincing the 300 plus strong, army of girls that had somehow formed within the 30 minutes he used to awkwardly finish feeding himself that; No... he was not giving out free petting's, No they could not crawl onto his lap and spend the rest of their day in a lazy romantic daze with him and Hell No, he did not prefer underage girls. He was rather surprised to note that quite a few of them had broken down and cried in despair at that statement.

The hardest part was ditching the more hard-to-persuade girls that absolutely insisted they get their turn on his lap so that he could escape back to his room in peace. He could swear he saw his future reflected in their eyes as they chased him down, somehow emanating a solid aura filled with a burning resolve to catch him and make him pet them to death.

His death.

"Eeep."

Naruto had no idea how many hours he had wasted running away from them, only successfully escaping after liberal use of Delta's magnificent strategizing, his genius level IQ and his superior stealth abilities.

_[Summary; You ended up hiding behind some bushes.]_

"Guu... my adventures don't sound as good if you put it so honestly, Delta." He poked his head out of the bushes and warily looked around for more insane females, only to find himself in a wooded area near the arena.

_[Was that your intention? My apologies; I was not programmed to understand stupid.]_

"Eh? But that was Japanese?"

_[I... I think I finally understand why you, Shinonono-san and Orimura-san are such good friends.]_

"Eh? Really? Why?"

Delta decided to change the topic, _[I detect signals from Orimura-san's Byakushiki and two unknown units in the arena. The signal strength indicates that both unknowns are Personal Units. What will you do?]_

"Isn't it just a practice match? Meh, sounds like fun. Let's go." Naruto cheerfully jumped out of the bushes and snuck his way to the nearby arena.

******Fata Morgana******

"Ichika!"

"Ichika!"

"ICHIKA!"

"Kuuu..." Ichika winced as he heard his name being loudly repeatedly by a blonde haughty girl, his black haired first childhood friend and his brown haired second childhood friend, "I-I can hear you, you don't have to shout."

"What are you talking about! It's your fault for listening properly."

Houki nodded along with Cecilia's words, "That's right. This is the first time in a week that we've been able to train with you, but you keep daydreaming!"

The brown haired Chinese girl stuck her hands on her hips in a threatening manner, "Is there something you don't understand with our instructions?"

"Ah that... rather than don't understand it's more like..." Ichika scratched the back of his head as he rewound the day in his mind; the three of them had immediately volunteered to help with his training since that Insane Bastard wasn't around.

What followed had been an extremely chaotic evening filled with the loud enthusiastic voices of three young maidens.

"Like, *rip*- after I do that, there will be *klang!* *Donk dong!* feeling."

"Your instincts should be able to understand, right? Use your feelings, feelings...whaa? Why can't you understand that, idiot!"

"When you defend, the right part of your body must tilt forward by 5 degrees, and when dodging, you must turn in the opposite direction by 20 degrees."

In short... "Nope, I didn't understand. I'm an idiot. Sorry!"

A chill ran down his back the moment he realized the implication in the words that he had just uttered.

It was a scary moment when he realized that he had actually started to prefer learning from the Insane Bastard rather from his three friends.

"Maa... Maa... don't get so worked up." An angelic voice broke up the quarrel and soothed over ruffled feathers with a delicate and pure smile as an orange and black striped IS with white armour plates gracefully glided over to them.

The orange IS leaned over the lump of flesh that was rocking back and forth in a terrified huddle, "Are you alright Ichika?" the owner of the shadow queried with concern.

As Ichika slowly broke out of his depressed thoughts and nodded to his friend, he wondered why the only other male IS pilot in Kuou Academy was so pure and gentle. Especially in comparison with a certain black suited sister and his three friends. What was the world coming to? Was it really alright for a guy to be softer and more feminine than a girl nowadays?

The blonde boy glanced unsurely at the black haired boy who had apparently just recovered from a spontaneous nervous breakdown, "Umm... I think Ichika has had enough of training how to move with his IS. I already watched his movements from his battle with Rin-san and it was already very good for a beginner so we shouldn't force him with this anymore. Rather than that, why don't we teach him how to use long ranged weapons?"

"Oooh! That's my specialty!" Cecilia stepped forward with her chest puffed out proudly, "There's no one on campus better suited to teach him something like that, right Ichika?"

Cecilia glanced around, "Ichika?"

Her crush was completely missing.

A quavering voice replied from behind a concrete wall, "No guns. NO GUNS! I don't care; I will never go near a gun even if I have to die!" everyone there sweat dropped as the black haired boy's ramblings devolved into muttered pleas to stop shooting him with the occasional bastard insult mixed in.

Up on the arena's roof Naruto scratched his chin bemusedly, "... I think I went too far with him... Do you think Yuki will mind that I accidentally **broke **her only brother?"

_[...Of course she won't mind. She's an rational adult. Why don't you go find her and... apologize?]_

"Oooh... good idea!"

******Fata Morgana******

Charles cocked his head with a concerned look. Because Ichika was the first actual male IS pilot, she couldn't say it with complete confidence, but she began to wonder if was it a requirement for Male pilots to suffer from breakdowns like that, especially with such disturbing frequency...

And if it was, did she have to do it as well?

She wasn't really confident in her acting skills. Not if it meant she had to act like a psychopath.

"A-are you sure, Ichika-san? Specializing only in CQC can be rather disadvantageous you know?"

"I-It doesn't matter anyway. The Byakushiki doesn't have the Expansion Slots necessary to add any more Equalizers other than Yukihira Niigata. That Insane Bastard also said he added a little something so I'll be fine even without guns!" the terrified Ichika rebuffed from his hiding place.

Up in the stands, Chifuyu began to rub her temples, something she realized she had been doing far more often lately then was healthy. She hadn't been notified about that last part at all and it was just what she needed; her childhood friend that was a few bolts short of a clock tinkering with a state of the art piece of equipment and then adding Kami knew what to it.

Not that the last member of their trio would be any better. Tabane had more than a few screws loose herself. That being said, they were also both weirdly predictable in many aspects; when it came to ISes in general for her, and whenever IS technology was being misused for him. Though, unlike Tabane, Naruto lacked her one track mind and was far more capable of seeing the bigger picture and had a strong, if rather twisted, sense of right and wrong to go with it.

This, ironically, just made trying to predict what he would do next, even harder.

Some days it just didn't pay to wake up.

Rin cocked her head in thought, "Namikaze-sensei? That's your combat instructor isn't he? What could someone like him add? You already said there were no more Expansion Slots left, so how did he add anything?"

Ichika, who seemed determined to never leave his protection behind the steel pillar while the topic remained on either guns or his insane mentor, shrugged, "Not sure. He just said that he piggy backed it on a hard point, whatever that means, and if I want to use it; aim my left hand at the target and touch my middle finger to my left palm."

All the girls sweat dropped and looked at the outstretched arm covered in white gleaming armoured plates dubiously, "He didn't put in a web shooter or something... did he?"

The sounds of girls excitedly talking alerted their group to a newcomer.

"Neh, neh! That's the new German 3rd generation unit isn't it?"

All of them looked over their shoulders to where a bulky jet black IS with red stripes slowly stepped out of the hangar. The glinting obsidian armour and the massive linear cannon attached to the IS's right shoulder only increased the bulky IS's intimidation factor.

Chifuyu immediately felt another headache coming as the black IS's belligerent pilot, Laura Bodewig, fired a warning shot with the linear cannon before verbally attacking Ichika and his friends.

"So... that's your prized student eh? You kinda forgot to teach her anger management."

Chifuyu cursed under her breath, sometime during the practice, her childhood friend had somehow entered the CIC booth without her noticing, "That wasn't my problem. I was only required to teach them how to pilot an IS." She spun around to glare at the blonde, "More importantly, what the hell did you do to the Byakushiki?"

The blonde who was idly relaxing in an easy chair at the back of the room shrugged, "I just hacked a few circuits and added an improvised hard point to it, the kind that my MPP uses. Delta, send Yuki the specs of the _Panzer Eisen_. I'm too lazy to explain everything."

_[Understood.]_

A beep from the band on her wrist told her that her IS's processing Unit had just received a mail.

He twirled in his seat as Yuki read over the email, "It's non reparable because it's not directly integrated into Byakushiki's systems though. So if it gets damaged, Ichika will have to come to me for replacements or upgrades."

Chifuyu simply sighed at Naruto's cavalier attitude about hacking into a state of the art piece of technology and modifying it.

"That aside, shouldn't you do something?"

"Hmm?"

Naruto pointed at the screen with a grin, "Their going to start brawling anytime now. She's definitely as hot tempered as you were when you were younger. No wonder she's your best student eh?"

[Pang!]

"Uuu..."

As he watched Chifuyu shout into the mike, Naruto felt a small warm smile on his lips as he leaned back onto his seat with a happy sigh.

**Play Yuki Kajiura – Epitaph**

She used to be very stiff and uptight when they were younger.

During their elementary school years, the three of them, him, Tabane and Yuki had bonded because the three of them were outcasts. Tabane... Emotionally awkward but cute Tabane, who was isolated because her intellect caused everyone else to feel extremely inadequate around her. The fact that she had no sense of modesty didn't help. Strong and stern Yuki was isolated because her strength and height dwarfed every other 6 year old in their school. And he was just plain sick and frail, unable to join everyone in physical games. More than once during those lonely times, he had found himself daydreaming of going out and using his body to the max; Kendo, basketball, badminton, playing musical instruments... anything as long as it was physical.

It didn't take long for the three weirdoes to band together and sit under the large tree in the school's courtyard, having lunch and quietly talking, playing...

A small chuckle rumbled in his throat at the memory of three little children playing under the shadow of a huge maple tree.

It was shortly after that, that his parents had realized that Tabane's intellect was slowly rotting away in a standardized education system and took her under their wing. With her, Houki had entered his life.

Tiny, soft and precocious Houki, who was fascinated by Kendo due to the Kendo school her father ran. Even though he was unable to practice the discipline himself, he had read more than enough books to have heated and intense discussions with the little black haired girl as she sat on his lap, munching on her favourite red bean buns.

He treasured those moments deep inside his heart.

It was a perfect six years that left them happy and incredibly fulfilled.

Unfortunately, things didn't last.

During 6th grade of elementary school everything fell apart. And he had uselessly, powerlessly watched it fall apart from behind glass walls, his heart breaking as it did so.

12 years ago, Yuki's parents had left her with Ichika alone. With no other choice and a 3 year old Ichika depending solely on her, she had taken the burden alone with a stone faced determination. That was also the same year that his body had finally succumbed to its sickness and he had been confined permanently to the Namikaze in-house ICU. Tabane on the other hand, had devoted herself to studying under his parents. Oft times, Yuki had to drag her out of his parents' study and eat just so that she would have enough nutrients to survive.

He still remembered trying his best to silently talk to Yuki with a computerized speaker, to comfort her through the thick opaque glass walls that had separated them and on the rare occasions that she managed to wrangle a chance to enter the white washed room filled with beeping machines, try to hold her slight body that was shaking with tears when it got too much for her to bear with his thin desiccated limbs.

Ah... That was when he started to call her Yuki wasn't it?

So cold, indomitable and strong. A thousand Winters, Chifuyu.

Yet so soft and fragile. Like snow, Yuki.

Feeling so weak and useless as the normally strong and steady Yuki cried was something he never wanted to feel again.

It must have been even far worse for her and for that, Naruto recognized that she was far stronger than he ever would be.

Watching her now as she admonished her students through the mike gave him the impression that she was actually enjoying her job to nurture the younger generation even if it didn't look like it.

He felt that watching something like this was worth all the trouble they had gone through.

Quietly he slipped out of his chair and left the booth, unaware that as he walked, the irises under his sunglasses flared an intense blue, signalling his resolve.

No matter what.

He refused to allow anything to taint this happiness.

_[Master. Isobu's report has come in.]_

Naruto paused for a second and nodded, "Open file."

Rapidly scanning the file displayed on a translucent floating screen as he walked, his lips twisted in a quirk, "How interesting. Looks like we're going to have a fascinating conversation with our newest housemate later."

The circuits in his irises burnt even brighter as his mind raced.

******Fata Morgana******

A tired sigh was issued from Charlotte's lips as she hurriedly climbed the stairs to the second floor of the bungalow where all the males were supposed to be staying. She was really looking forward to finally being able to soak in a hot bath and finally getting some rest after a really bad day.

It had been an extremely trying day, guilt, resentment and confusion had raged in her mind even as she tried to act like a normal student throughout the entire day. The mental strain from trying not to appear guilty or nervous had been enormous; fortunately, the blonde teacher had not appeared in classes. On top of that, the bindings around her chest that hid her growing assets also constricted her breaths, making it even harder to fit in as a normal person.

Tiredly swinging the door open, she absentmindedly muttered a quiet Japanese greeting, "Tadaima..."

"Ah, okaeri."

The blonde girl jumped and tensed, she hadn't expected anyone to reply, heck no one was SUPPOSED to reply. Her room was for a single person only wasn't it?

Hesitatingly, she crept further into the room, only to find the last person on Earth she wanted to talk to right now lounging on a stuffed couch in a completely relaxed manner.

The smouldering guilt, resentment and confusion in her chest returned with a burning vengeance.

Clutching her bag to her chest, Charlotte tried to make herself sound as angry and manly as possible, "Wh-what are you doing in my room?"

Men weren't supposed to sound so high pitched were they?

Naruto lazily waved one hand at her attempt to sound like a male, "You don't have to pretend anymore. Come in, come in Dunois-san. Oh and close the door. We don't want any eavesdroppers do we?"

Charlotte rolled her eyes, this was her room and yet the other blonde was the one inviting her in. Softly closing the door behind her, she rigidly tiptoed in to the room and nervously sat on the couch furthest away from him, "So? What do you want? Is this about last night?" she spat at him angrily, partly angry at herself for allowing her emotions to get the better of her last night and partly at him.

The blonde merely quirked an amused smile at her anger before tossing a small storage device to her.

"What is this?" She asked, warily glancing between the 1 inch long USB drive held between her fingers like a disgusting item and the lounging man.

"Plug it in and see for yourself." He replied blandly.

The two blondes stared at each other silently until the younger one finally relented and rigidly walked over to the PC on her desk, keeping her back away from him at all times. She waited anxiously for her PC to boot up and bring up the contents of the storage device the blonde had given to her.

As soon as she saw what was in them, she felt her chest tighten even further.

"Wha-what is this?" she muttered shakily.

"My location logs for the past 5 years as well as actual undistorted information about the Dunois Lab burnings in Chartreuse. As you can see I've never even been near Chartreuse in France before."

"Wha... Wh.. How did you know?" She spun around and glared at him, "This has to be faked, there's no other way you would have known about my mother otherwise!" A small trembling hand gripped the orange pendant around her neck. She pulled it off roughly, uncaring that the delicate skin around her neck would undoubtedly be bruised in no time, and thrust it out defiantly. The pendant hummed for a moment before emitting a 3-D grainy floating image of a giant gray bulky silhouette, carrying two shield-like extensions, ominously watching a nondescript building burn to the ground.

She stabbed one shaky finger at the grainy image, "This was captured by the security cameras in the lab my mother worked in! The same lab the Grey Catastrophe burnt to the ground 2 years ago, **killing my mother**!"

Naruto observed at the picture intensely for a silent few moments, "It's not me." he concluded easily, "That silhouette does resemble Delta very much, but there are inconsistencies." He pointed at the area above and behind the silhouette, "Note the lack of ear pieces. Also the silhouette seems to be based on Mirage Beta, yet in that form, Delta lacks any wings." His finger moved to the back of the silhouette where the two fragmented extensions were still visible, "Your mother's assassin still has them."

He leaned back into his comfortable seat with a serene look on his face and spread his arms wide open, "I cannot give you any guarantee that that silhouette isn't me, so if you still don't believe me even with the information I gave you, you are free to finish what you wanted to do last night. I won't resist. That is my consideration to you that I am not lying."

The two of them engaged in another staring contest that ended when Charlotte finally slumped down on to her knees in defeat unable to hold back her tears and unwilling to take someone's life based on pure speculation alone. The orange pendant that was the _Raphael Revive's_ closed form dropped bonelessly from her fingers and the flickering projected image disappeared without a trace.

"Th-then how do you know about my mother?" she tried grasping at straws.

The blonde instructor watched her for a moment before waving one hand to bring up a small display and sent it to her with a light push, "Quite frankly, your father is a fool for trying to pass you off as a son. Any idiot could have predicted how much scrutiny an illegitimate son that appeared out of nowhere with the ability to pilot an IS would have been under. Especially since half of the world is still in turmoil due the appearance of the first male IS pilot." He sniffed scornfully, "And yet he still couldn't bothered to do a proper job out of it or at least hire someone with an IQ higher than 20 to do it for him. Your supposed historical and medical records were so hastily constructed and sloppy that an amateur could've done a better job. Isobu broke through the security in 0.03 seconds before deciding it wasn't worth it. Honestly? If the world wasn't so desperate to get their hands on more data of male IS pilots, you wouldn't have passed the main gate without getting caught."

He gazed at the stunned girl who was reading the document with shocked violet eyes and sighed pityingly. He supposed he shouldn't be so hard on her. It wasn't entirely her fault anyway, by the sound of things, it seemed like her Father had coerced her or something.

"Charles Dunois, born Charlotte Lambeth, illegitimate daughter of Violette Lambeth and Philippe Dunois. Violette Lambeth was a renowned energy physicist that mostly worked for the Dunois Company until retiring 5 years ago. Reasons for retirement are unknown. Died 3 years later in what was officially labelled as an attack by terrorists, presumed to be the Grey Catastrophe. Status of daughter is officially unknown but I can make a few educated guesses." Naruto softly rattled off every detail he had memorized from the document he had sent to the girl with a carefully blank tone,

The blonde sighed quietly and let his head fall back on to the couch's headrest with his eyes closed, "It wasn't hard to connect the dots. Every year there at least hundreds of attacks and incidents that are all attributed as the Grey Catastrophe's fault. I personally know at least 300 people who want to kill me for something I didn't do and was framed for. That number excludes the ones that I DON'T know. As you can tell, very few people know that the Grey Catastrophe is also Naruto Namikaze but it's not hard to guess that you found out the day you moved in or something."

He paused to give the girl time to absorb everything, making no move to comfort the girl who was crying on the floor.

"I'm sorry for your loss." He murmured quietly.

Charlotte felt herself weakly slumping backwards onto the wall, a chuckle distinctly lacking in humour shaking her small frame, "I... I was lied to? I tried to kill someone because of a lie? Why?"

She buried her face in her hands, half sobbing, half laughing.

The two of them remained in place, deeply buried in their own thoughts as time slowly slipped by, making no efforts to communicate with each other. Naruto sat stonily on the couch whereas the girl sobbed on the floor. The sun outside her room slowly set, inch by inch, causing the room to slowly turn from bright daylight to a burning crimson, turning completely dark when the sun was fully set. Eventually the only sound in the room came from Charlotte's quiet sniffles when she ran out of tears to cry.

"I'm... sorry about last night. I just lost it when I realized the Grey Catastrophe was so close." A soft apology came from the girl on the floor.

She sniffed cutely, "You know. I never even knew how my mother died until my Father told me shortly before I came here. I just knew that I was alone. Alone for two years. The first time my father contacted me, I was so happy, I'd never heard his voice before... I got even happier when he told me if I pretended to be a boy and came to this Academy, he would let me know how my mother died... And yet it was a lie. I was stupid for believing something like this without any proof..."

"He might not have known." Naruto pointed out softly, "It's not hard to frame a target that is already known for indiscriminately attacking IS related facilities. And it's not like I had time to stop and answer interviews."

The blonde girl heaved another dry sob and Naruto rubbed his temples.

Yuki always told him that he would regret having such a huge soft spot for crying girls in the future.

"It might take some time, but if you want, I'll ask Isobu to do some investigation. She should at least be able to get a lead." Naruto offered half heartedly.

Violet eyes peeped out from between fingers and she quavered in a soft mezzo-soprano, "Really?

Good effing lord. How the hell did she make _crying_ look so adorable?

Naruto gulped, "Yeah. In the mean time, you can ask your father about where he got that picture."

Charlotte nodded and the two of them stayed there, staring at each other in an uncomfortable and awkward silence.

"Oh... What did you mean yesterday when you advised me to change my perfume? I don't wear perfume..."

"Oh that... ah... How did you put it again Delta?"

_[Olfactory sensors have detected an abnormal increase in pheromones. Compounds in pheromones indicate a 98% similarity to those commonly found in menstruating women; a common indicator to show that a female is looking for a mate and ready for reproduction.]_

Charlotte's violet eyes which had been staring blankly at the floor slowly moved their way up to the other blonde's idiotic face with mounting horror with each monotonic word issued form the AI.

Naruto nodded, "Yeah something like that."

"..."

"Hmm? Why are you so red?"

"..."

"Why are you shaking? Wait, why are you summoning your IS? Bugyah!"

Ichika who had been in the process of opening his door jumped when he was startled by a loud bang and a black blur that flew out of his classmate's room, the black blur hit the wall with a resounding smack before slowly collapsing onto the floor in a rumpled heap. The door which had been blown wide open immediately smacked firmly shut again.

"Errr... you alright?"

The black and yellow lump gave him a shaky thumbs up as it slowly propped itself up on shaky legs.

It glanced aside to where Ichika was peering curiously out of the open door to his own room further down the landing.

"Ye-yeah, just wanted to talk to the new guy, tell him why I haven't been teaching and all that. By the way, don't disturb him for today. He seems to be angry about something. Not sure what."

Ichika decided he didn't want to know and retreated in to the safety of his own room.

The blonde sighed as he stumbled and swayed his way down the stairs; instinctively he pulled out his phone and dialled a familiar number, "Yuki?"

"What?"

Naruto blinked at the curt and frosty tone, "You had a bad day too huh? Want to go grab some drinks? You can even bring your junior. I'll pay."

"Whole or half?"

Naruto rolled his eyes, "Fine. Whole, you greedy woman."

"I wasn't the one who offered to pay. Meet you outside."

******Fata Morgana******

Naruto rubbed his sore back with a pout.

"That was mean Yuki..."

The teacher who was dressed in her customary sharp and formfitting overcoat ignored her friend.

"I mean... I just wanted a place to crash... and you threw your drunken childhood friend into the bathroom... the cold and hard bathroom..." Naruto moped tragically.

"You were being an idiot and Yamada had the only couch. Therefore you got the bathroom."

"The floor would've been fine."

"There's no way I'm letting a pervert like you stay in my apartment without any precautions."

"I wouldn't call it that... I prefer calling it being a connoisseur of the better things in life. Besides all I did was say that your black pyjamas were cute!"

"Ergo, massive pervert."

"Meanie."

The sounds of a lot of chattering girls running down the hallways interrupted the two teachers, "Hurry! I heard that there are three representative cadets fighting it out for Orimura-san's affection in Arena 3!"

"Ehh? I thought we had to fight in the class tournaments, not now?"

Naruto smirked at his friend as the group of excitable high school girls pass them by without even noticing the dark expression on Chifuyu's face. Grinning, he began to follow the ominous looking storm cloud surrounding his childhood friend to the arena.

When they reached the arena, Naruto's grin evaporated on the spot.

Down in the arena, a bulky black IS had ensnared the white Byakushiki and Charlotte's Raphael Revive Custom II with some sort of vines and the silver haired pilot of the black IS was beating her opponents down with her fists and a sadistically triumphant smile. At the side of the arena, both of them could see Cecilia Alcott and Huang Lingyin, both of them looked badly injured.

Chifuyu only needed a split second to see what was happening and immediately grabbed Naruto's sleeve, stopping him from charging down into the field. Delta's wings had already been deployed and were humming with power and an armoured arm was poised to blow his way through the arena's shields.

"Naruto. Stay!"

The blonde glared at her from behind his sunglasses, the contrasting blue circle of fire and dark glasses only adding an extra level to the blonde's intimidation.

"Enough Naruto, you're a teacher now! Even if she is bullying, lethal takedowns are NOT part of our teaching methods. Let me handle this."

The blonde glared at her for a few moments before relenting with a grunt.

Chifuyu only gave him an apologetic glance, "Sorry, but I can't afford to let you go down there. I know how you always lose control when you see someone misusing an IS."

The blonde seemed to sulk rebelliously for a few moments before sighing in resignation at being seen through so easily, "I get it. Just get down there and stop her before someone dies."

He dispersed the wing and gauntlet with a small jerk of his head.

Chifuyu gave him one last glance to ensure that the blonde wasn't going to berserk on her student before summoning her own Katana and leaping down into the field to stop Laura from hurting her brother too badly.

******Fata Morgana******

**Author's Notes**

For some reason... my hand was itchy and clicked on the last few Naruto chapters. The last time I read it was right after Madara dropped a comet on the Tsuchikage, kicking off the war... So I noticed three things after reading the last ten chapters...

The Uchihas pull game breaking skills out their asses every alternate chapter.

8 out of 10 chapters seemed to focus on Uchiha, Uchiha, Uchiha and was basically a flimsy excuse to display to the readers how powerful and influential they are.

And it looks like Masashi is REALLY trying to redeem the Uchiha to get an idealistic ending where everyone (that is important anyway) is happy doesn't it?

... What the f**k?


	5. Project Metatron

**Fata Morgana Chapter 5**

**Project Metatron**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything, not Infinite Stratos and certainly not the Naruto franchise. **

Well... exams are over... internships started... results came out and I failed one subject. Supplementary exams are in 1 week and I'm dead ass busy with revising and going to work as an intern, resulting in a social life that would make even a hermit look like Paris Hilton.

**Soundtrack List**

Two Steps from Hell – Sky Titans

Two Steps from Hell – To Glory

******Fata Morgana******

"_Ever since the multi-purpose movable frame, Infinite Stratos, had been created 10 years ago, a global economy that had been slowly stagnating ever since the fall of Greece as part of the European Union 15 years ago, saw a sudden spike in activity as it was revitalized through the creation of the IS and the new technology that came with it, sparking off an arms and energy race that made the 1947 Cold War look like a playground quarrel._

_Of particular note were the hyper capacitor and hyper compressor technologies that utilized the Zero Point energy theory; one hyper capacitor was estimated to be capable of storing enough energy to power a midsized city for a month whereas the power required to operate a hyper compressor by storing related equipment in a miniature pocket vacuum was similarly monumental. _

_However they are both proprietary IS technologies that had been long thought to be completely unfeasible due to the ridiculously high costs of using harnessing Zero point energy since the 2010s, a thought that been proven completely wrong by Tabane Shinonono, a Japanese scientist and creator of the IS, as she somehow managed to find a way to simplify the process. Since then engineers and scientists have been able to reverse engineer that technology, separating them from the IS as stand alone technologies to dramatically improve the quality of life all over the world and rendering inefficient fossil energy completely obsolete._

_That is not to say that energy has become free, it still costs a lot, simply in a more manageable and cleaner form. This has become the IS's number one weakness, restricting them to mostly athletic or competitive purposes and major strategic roles due to the amount of available IS cores limited by the Alaska treaty. Then again, even one IS was a fair opponent for an entire army back then._

_Tabane Shinonono's first generation models had been compatible with, at the time, revolutionary energy based weaponry and varying amounts of conventional human based weaponry though they were all limited to only one or two Equalizers at the same time. The trademark of the first generation models were their flexibility as a foundational template for future movable frames and were easily integrated into national defence systems. _

_The second generation models were a landmark in the development of the Infinite Stratos, marked by impressive improvements towards the first generation's mobility and ease of use, mimicking the human body's economy of motion in a far smoother manner compared the plain and clunky first generation models, though they were still far more mobile than any available land, air or aquatic based vehicle at the time, and efficient use of an IS's available Expansion Slots. On the other hand, weapons technology saw very little significant advances in this particular generation save the creation of IS specific conventional ballistic weaponry. This was also the generation that made the inclusion of an Absolute Defence System in IS units mandatory after the world saw an increase in deaths due to reckless IS piloting._

_With the advent of the year 2030 however, IS units hailed as the new third generation have been uncovered with significant advances in advanced IS weaponry and shielding, fitting more Equalizers on an IS, and production of role specific models, such as the Japanese __**Sakura**__ series specializing in CQC combat, the British based __**Blue Spectrum **__units specializing in long range bombardment and the German __**Panzer **__series specializing in nigh unbreakable defences coupled with slow but massive fire power._

_It is predicted that by the time the fourth generation has been reached, IS units will be versatile, energy efficient and powerful machines of the new era capable of fulfilling any required role._

_It is almost hard to believe the progress humanity has made in a mere ten years but we here at SBS documentaries will stay on top of the progress to provide you with a continuous and up to date view of the future, toda-"_

Naruto switched off the plasma display in his room with the press of a small button and collapsed into his chair with a heavy sigh and a disappointed shake of his head. While more or less accurate, the documentary had obviously been heavily edited and had presented an assessment viewed through rose coloured glasses.

Pinching the bridge of his nose in a move copied straight from his childhood friend, one unshielded crystal clear eye slowly panned to the Virtual Desktop's floating display on his desk, showing the available statistics of the new German IS, the **Schwarzer Regen** piloted by one Laura Bodewig.

He had watched Yuki take care of the belligerent German girl but it had rankled something bad that he was unable to do something about it. He had never been very good with just sitting back and watching things take its course. A leftover instinct from his time stuck in a glass cube probably and watching the documentary had done nothing good for his mood.

His private room was enshrouded in darkness due to the closed curtains even though it was only barely past mid afternoon, the atmosphere was quiet and tense save for Delta's quiet and steady humming and the sounds of his own breaths.

Finally after a few calming moments of meditation, he seemingly spoke to the empty room, "Go ahead, there's something you want to know don't you?"

_[... Why did you lie to them? It is... irrational. Your goals would be achieved far more easily with their help.]_

Naruto chuckled lightly at his partner's uncharacteristic hesitance, "I'm surprised it took you that long to say something about it."

_[I have only been activated for slightly more than two years. I was unsure if it was proper procedure to question your actions. There are no records leftover from my predecessor.]_

"Just ask what you wish, part of your programming requires you to question and grow doesn't it? Besides, it's much more fun to have someone to pop my ego every once in a while. Keeps me from doing something too stupid."

_[Your definition of stupid is somewhat lacking. What you consider stupid, other people consider insane and your 'too stupid 'usually equates to suicidal in normal terms. Yet I am confident that Orimura-san does that very efficiently if your hormones are any indication.]_

Naruto quirked his lips, "Touché. So? What was ailing you partner?"

_[Why lie to Lambeth-san? You already knew who the perpetrator was. The image quality was bad but it was easy to identify the assailant. Would it not be more efficient to work together in capturing... __**him**__? Similarly, why lie to Orimura-san? Her support and expertise with CQC would be greatly appreciated.]_

"I never lied. I simply neglected to tell them everything." Naruto countered smoothly with an amused smile, "It would make no sense in giving Charlotte a target. All it would do is drive her to do something stupid in the name of revenge. Like attacking a clearly superior opponent. I rather she stayed unsatisfied but alive instead of dead in a gutter. You can't do anything when you're dead."

Neither of them said anything about the callous one sided decision.

_[... An opponent like you. Understood. What about Orimura-san?]_

The blonde shrugged easily, "I already told her I'll be away from the academy for a week. She can interpret it however she wants. If I told her about my plans, she'd lock me up, probably with a ball and chain to boot, and throw away the key."

_[It's so hard to quantify human interactions... Why would she impede you if you are doing something beneficial?]_

"Why don't you think about it and let me know when you get an answer? Cause I don't know either."

It was a lie and they both knew it.

"At any rate, are my new blades ready? I plan on leaving tonight."

_[The new __**TR - Prime**__ heat blades reconfigured for extra durability and slashing power have been finished and are awaiting attachment. However, refitting the forearm armour plates with thicker ones to store the larger blades that will replace the original wrist blades will only be completed in 180 minutes.]_

"Good enough." He glanced at the table clock and noted that the night had fallen without him noticing in the dark room, "We'll get some sleep before we leave, get Mirage Mu and Beta ready by then."

He got up of the chair wearily, "We leave at 2300 hours, let the team know I'll rendezvous with them 3 kliks southwest of our target within 2 hours of departure."

_[Understood, Master.]_

******Fata Morgana******

A sleek gray fighter jet with orange stripes entered the Syrian airspace above the low hanging Jabar ar Ruwaq Mountains at a speed of Mach 9 before exiting hypersonic speeds with a muted explosion of compressed air. It slowly circled the sky above the mountains in ever falling spirals until the pilot of the jet detected an infra red light signalling him from amongst the short and sparse trees common to the northern end of the Syrian mountain.

Slowly, the jet angled itself towards the signal's location, slowly lost height in a steady spiral above it until the plane's belly was practically skimming the tops of the trees in what any rational person would label a suicidal move before morphing with a low hum gears creaking against each other, revealing a humanoid form of about 6 feet tall with jet wings attached to its back and hips, and heavy looking armour plates on its extremities.

Carefully descending with a low hum of jets, the figure's beak like head slowly swivelled around as it passed through an invisible bubble. Where there was once nothing but a small, sparsely treed plateau, three machines suddenly became visible to his vision. The first unit he noticed was a floating IS decorated primarily in a pale lavender hue, white segmented armour on its limbs, bright sparkles slowly emanated from the small butterfly like wings on its back and attachments on each shoulder that resembled satellite dishes along with two smaller ones on the head band that strangely enough reminded him of buns. A lavender coloured decal of a lily was barely visible on the machine's left shoulder pad.

He recognized it as a Russian Second Generation, the **ACNX – Oracle Custom**

Another IS stood beside the floating lavender one, this one sported a primary colour of a purple so deep that it was nearly black in the dim light and gold decals of a flower with 8 petals on the left shoulder armour, hefting a black and red striped, spiked Kite shield that covered its entire left hand. Deep purple wings with many gold plated cooling fins on the inside, was resting on the IS's back. That one he recognized as the **AC3 – Mystery Custom**.

On the far side of the clearing, another IS stood under a tree with its pilot appearing to be asleep since her eyes were closed but he knew better. This one was a deep red and carried the heavy armour that the purple IS and lavender one lacked with two bulky shoulder armour plates decorated with entwined roses and thorns that almost reached the ground and two long and heavy looking cylinders were attached to its back instead of the customary wings. Two horn shaped attachments on its helmet bad nodded up and down as the pilot opened her deep ruby red eyes to stare straight at him and gave him a short and curt nod. Giving the pilot in the **AC3 – Sadalsuud type F** a short wave, Naruto landed carefully before deactivating Mirage Mu with a whispered order.

The Delta slowly paced into the clearing, carrying two small suit cases that looked strangely small in its armoured grip.

Glowing blue eyes roved the clearing before the Delta itself disappeared to show a tall and fit blonde wearing a Hawaiian shirt with flowery print, Bahama shorts and a wide grin underneath tacky sunglasses.

No one in the clearing even blinked, although the girl with platinum blonde hair in the black IS managed to muffle a snicker, the other two simply rolled their eyes.

There was a hint of pride in the glint of his eyes as he greeted them, "Hinata, Ino, Kurenai. I'm glad to see you girls made it."

It was something that made all three girls in the clearing suddenly stand taller and straighter.

"Oh we definitely made it, though I see you took a side trip. Had a nice vacation? Or did you just get lost? Again I might add." the blonde girl questioned with quirked lips.

The blonde male pouted at her, "That's not very nice. Why won't you just let it go? It just happened once, just ONCE."

She smirked impudently at him, "When someone, who is fitted with an advanced AI if I might add, somehow manages to get lost on his way to the dorms, which were barely 50 meters away from the arena in Moscow by the way, and turn up in Saudi Arabia the next morning drunk off his arse, I think I'm entitled to a laugh or two."

The black haired girl in the lavender IS covered her lips and giggled daintily before nudging the blonde girl with an elbow, "Don't be so mean to him. He can't help it if he can't hold his liquor." She sighed dramatically, "Men nowadays are so soft aren't they?"

The last member of the trio, who was relaxing under the tree, shook her midnight black tresses and smirked slyly, "Hinata, that's not what you said the night Kiba came to your place."

The blonde girl lost it and began rolling on the ground in laughter while every visisble inch of Hinata's pale white skin immediately burned a bright cherry red as she spluttered at the smirking woman, "Ku-Ku-KURENAI! You said you would keep it a secret!" Hinata then poked the laughing girl at her feet with a toe, "And you! Be quiet!"

Ino just laughed harder.

Naruto waved his hands and a translucent display fazed into existence in front of him. All three girls in the clearing took that as the signal to start being serious and crowded around the shortest person in the plateau. On the screen was a small red dot that marked the location of a supposedly abandoned base on the outskirts of the Homs Desert.

"Is that the target?" The oldest of the three questioned quietly.

"It is. Hinata, did you detect anything?"

A set of translucent visors made of hard light appeared around her eyes, wrapping around her head. From outside, her team members could see bucket loads of data and numbers scrolling down the translucent screen as Hinata's pale lavender eyes jerked around under the visor, "No change in the last 30 minutes. Infra red scans show signs of life hiding under camouflage all around the area. Guards probably, I estimate about 30, all of them equipped with nothing more than early second generation copies. The only other thing of note is that I have been unable to scan beneath the ground; it appears to have been heavily shielded."

Naruto nodded at their team's primary scout's input, trusting completely in her opinion, "That alone probably confirms my suspicions."

The platinum blonde, who was the brute force of the trio, chewed her bottom lips, "Exactly what were you suspicious off? You just asked us to go look at a bunch of abandoned army installations and send you the data."

Naruto cricked his neck, "Did you hear about the attack on the IS Academy?"

All three of them nodded, "Yeah, Boss briefed us on it before she passed on your orders."

"Good. What I didn't tell anybody after I ripped the drone's core out was that I had Delta do a full invasive scan on it. It was a low quality, crude but efficient IS core, however it lacked one thing. A power source."

"Wait, what do you mean lacked? You didn't just damage the capacitor or something?" Ino queried in her typical firm yet feminine voice that more often than not misled the men around her into believing that she wasn't a complete minx in and outside of battle.

Naruto shook his head.

"Long range Deuterion beams?" Kurenai muttered, idly curling her long black hair around one finger.

"Arena was shielded. Wouldn't have got through and I would have seen the transmission if it was inside. What I DID find was the trigger for a semi localized explosive embedded inside the core, designed to go off; destroying the power source the moment the drone was defeated." Naruto drew a deep breath and looked at them one by one, "It didn't make sense. Why destroy only the power source? Wouldn't it make more sense to destroy everything if you didn't want your tech to fall into enemy hands?"

Under the patiently waiting stare of her mentor, deep red ruby eyes closed in thought for a few moments before snapping open again with a cool determination, "They were testing a new power source. You likely wouldn't have found out had the IS been defeated in the normal way. It was pure luck that you ripped it out the way you did."

Naruto smiled warmly, "As expected of the cool sniper of team Konoha."

Kurenai averted her eyes so that she didn't accidentally look into his proud ones.

"As Kurenai said, they were probably testing something new. Had it been from normal channels, I would have ignored it, but to do something so fishy and elaborate practically screamed that something was going on. Now, the only lead I had was that the explosives used a unique, obsolete type of gunpowder that was mined from these mountains, so I had you girls scan the area. It was a long shot but I can confidently say that we hit jackpot."

"Can we charge in? Pretty please?" Ino asked with hope shining in her turquoise eyes.

Naruto blinked at the enthusiasm while her partners rolled their eyes, "Errr... yeah I guess? Hinata? Do you have a surface scan of the entire place?"

The black haired girl smirked and sent a file to him, "Already done before the first five minutes we hit the ground even passed. I even took the liberty of picking out the best infiltration spots, auxiliary generators, mapped out the tunnels as best I could and cooked dinner."

Fluidly opening the file, Naruto rapidly scanned it with one practiced eye.

The three girls watched a gleam enter his eyes, realizing what it meant.

"They are mostly drones aren't they?"

Naruto just nodded in confusion, "I guess so... why?"

Ino started squealing, "I love flashy entrances."

An intimidating black face mask dropped down on Ino's face, and the eye holes began to glow an ominous red.

Naruto blinked as Kurenai's hands were suddenly filled with an extremely large sniper that she loaded with an extremely loud crack as her shoulder pads opened to reveal row upon row of ballistic missiles.

Hinata just smiled sweetly as she began grinding the edge of two curved beam daggers in her hands one each other with a really ominous screeching sound.

Naruto really began to fear for Ichika's future. Or more accurately, what Yuki was going to do **TO** him when Ichika graduated.

_[Summary: Screwed.]_

******Fata Morgana******

Two nondescript girls of Middle Eastern descent stood within a rundown shack, taking shelter from the desert's harsh wind and biting cold, situated at the very edge of the base's north entrance, carefully watching the main gates with one eye while doing whatever they could to pass the time in boredom. One girl lit a cigarette while her companion glared harshly at her but took no further action, choosing instead to continue watching the main entrance as her IS ran standard scans every five minutes.

She just made a reminder to poison the smoker's dinner with poisoned berries later.

The other girl took a puff of smoke and blew it out carelessly when she heard a whistling sound above the din of the desert wind, **"Oi, do you hear that?"**

Her companion cocked her head as the IS ran another scan that came up blank, **"No, what is it?"**

"**Some weird whistling sound."**

She looked at the smoker weirdly, **"I keep telling you not to smoke too much, and that's just the wind isn't it?"**

Just as the smoker was about to reply, the whistling sound hit its peak and they both widened their eyes in shock as the entire base was rocked by a massive explosion at the South end of the base.

**Play Two Steps from Hell – Sky Titans**

She shakily stood up with one hand on the rickety old table just in case the ground started rumbling again, she threw her cigarette away hastily with a worried expression, **"Wha-what was that?"**

"**I-I don't know, but we better report in."** Her partner pulled up a comm. channel to the security centre, only to find it filled with static. She dismissed the screen with disgust and was about to go directly to the underground facilities when her radar began beeping like crazy, indicating someone leisurely walking up towards the front door.

Gulping, both of them hefted up crude rifles and aimed it at the main gate, awaiting the intruder to appear, they both had orders to shoot to kill any unauthorised intruders.

Tense seconds passed when the smoker finally lowered the gun, **"Was your scan mistaken?" **she asked hopefully.

Fate decided to prove her wrong as the entire wrought iron gate exploded with extreme force. The wreckage of a once perfectly working gate flew through the air and landed right by their shack with a massive screech of steel.

They both paled dramatically, **"Wha-what? How is that possible?"**

A figure suddenly melded right out of the shadows directly in front of them, red eyes burned in its eye sockets as the armoured helmet seemed to leer at them but they were both too frozen with shock to care.

"**Is WHAT possible?"**

They both shivered at the demented voice that answered them in their own native Arabic.

Then everything went black as the shadows gushing out of the intruder's gold wings overtook them.

The shadows receded to show the grinning helmet and two unconscious girls with dark skin.

"Dum Di dum... What was I supposed to do again?" she casually bashed the head of an incoming drone with her shield so hard that the head piece was separated from its torso while the heat axe in her right hand slowly cleaved its way through more drones, "Oh right. Destroy backup generators~"

"Kukuku... Kahahaha!" She began cackling as she bulldozed her way through the mass of drones, heading towards the generators.

******Fata Morgana******

As Ino was busy kicking down the front gate, a figure flapped its butterfly wings in the airspace above the Homs Desert base as it slowly descended, scattering sparkling dust all over the base and interrupting any sort of wave based communication as it slowly floated down, the pilot giggling like a little child.

"**Intruder! Ha-Halt!" ** a large group of sand coloured IS units hesitantly emerged from beneath the sands and flew up to accost her with their guns primed and ready to shoot, the weird giggling grating on their nerves.

The moment they were about to draw level with the Lavender IS, all the guards managed to see was a sweet smile before the IS disappeared into thin air, **"Wha-what? Where is she?"**

"**Behind you." **

All she had time to do was gulp before her assailant swiftly cut out the spines of her IS with quick and efficient slashes, and disappeared again before repeating the process to another hapless girl like a ghost. All her victims dropped from the sky like so much rocks.

Pale lavender eyes gleamed as she began giggling again, this time the giggling was interspersed with the grinding of her blades.

"**Raarrgh!"**

Hinata merely glanced behind her at the remaining guards which all were about to shoot her.

She smiled sweetly at them as thick blue beams lanced out from behind a mountain, hitting their head units or power packs with unnatural accuracy before they even had time to register the fact that there was more than two enemies.

Glancing around, she called out sweetly, "You missed one."

One last beam burned brightly in the night sky before curving around her to drop the last stunned guard like a sack of bricks.

"Show off."

Another blue beam lanced out, narrowly skimming the very foremost layer of her shoulder plate as if to chastise her, "OI!"

There was no answer.

Pouting, Hinata continued to float down when she noticed an army of black mechanical drones fitting the description that the Boss had given them flooding out of the open doors of the barracks in droves.

She smiled beatifically as Kurenai lit the night's sky behind her with dozens of missile trails, raining highly explosive shells onto the unwary drones.

More than 40 drones were reduced into scrap metal within less than 10 seconds.

The field of burning and twisted wreckage was more than a little disturbing, probably even more so because of the sounds of a childish giggle from an invisible ghost that floated around the otherwise silent battle field.

******Fata Morgana******

**Play Two Steps from Hell – To Glory**

Drones and mercenaries alike warily crowded around the unknown object that had just fell out of the sky at maximum velocity like a comet, crushing their main generators with enough power to cause the ground to tremble. Excited, wary and scared whispers echoed around the clearing in which the generators had been built in as the guards wondered what to do about the strange object.

One of them even ordered a drone to touch the eight sided crystal like formation that was made out of some sort of metallic grey alloy.

Nervously, the mercenaries were about to call in headquarters for directions when the radio squawked with a panicked, **"HELP!" **before it was completely cut off by a panicked scream and static.

Nervousness was upgraded into full fledged panic as the mercenaries began wildly firing on the metal grey object. Even the drones began to rain beams on the immobile crystal. Their attacks continued for nearly 5 minutes but when the smoke cleared, the sound of gulping was nearly audible in the clearing.

All their attacks hadn't been able to even scratch the unknown object's slick surface.

Then there was a hydraulic hiss and the crystal split in half.

All of them took a step back in fear as an intense blue eye leered out at them from between the gap, dark grey armour glinted ominously in the dim moonlight. They took another step backwards as the crystal fully separated and a bulky figure stepped out like some grotesque imitation of a chick's birth from an egg. It hefted its egg shells on its bulky arms and swung them around once or twice before the gathered mercenaries realized that those halves were actually massive kite shields as tall as the figure wearing enough armour to take on an army.

The bottom edge of the two massive kite shields that was lined with beam cutters glowed a bright poisonous blue.

"My turn."

He spun around with his arms thrown out, the bright blue blades on the kite's bottom edge sheared through the drones like paper. The moment, the Delta finished its spin, six massive thrusters on its back rumbled, propelling the heavy figure forwards, crashing forward through the mercenaries like a freight train, crumpling flesh, bone, and metal alike under its incredible weight and power.

Swinging the shields back and forth, the armoured blonde batted his opponents away like flies as those that were lucky enough to escape his frontal charge peppered his back with pathetic beam charges. Ignoring them, as he crushed a drone's head under his foot, the juggernaut continued moving in a straight line towards the entrance of the biggest building in the base, knowing that the entrance to the underground facility was inside there.

Naruto didn't bother to walk through doors as he made his own ones by crashing through cement, steel and brick like paper until the hall got too narrow for Mirage Beta to bulldoze through. Grunting in disappointment, he dropped his shields with a massive clang, their incredible weight cracking the cement floors. The heavy armour itself unfolded until there was enough space for a lightly armoured figure to step out.

"**His open! Get him now!"**

"**CHARGEEEE!"**

Blue eyes watched their progress from behind obsidian visors and a grim smile painted his lips.

The armour plates on his forearm shifted backwards as single edged blades as wide and as long as his forearm slid out of each wrist with an ominous rasp of metal on metal.

Then they began emitting a bright cherry red glow as Naruto swished them around, leaving hazy trails of intense heat in their wake.

The mercenaries skidded to a halt, **"RETREAT! RETREAT!"**

"Wise choice."

Unfortunately, the drones weren't as smart and the blonde got the intense pleasure of testing out his new blades on them.

******Fata Morgana******

Underground in the main facility, a portly man dressed in camouflage fatigues warily got out of his seat. After the initial tremor, they had lost all contact with the surface, "What is going on?" he demanded to a gaunt man dressed in white overalls. Around the two of them, men dressed in similar military fatigues ran around in a confused cacophony.

"I... I don't know! We've lost all our power from the surface! We only have our underground ones remaining!"

"Then find out!"

"Ye-yes sir!" he dashed over to a computer console to activate the security cameras viewing the main corridor leading towards the main chamber, which was also the only entrance from above ground.

At first, there was nothing but inky blackness coming from the screen and the screech of metal being cleaved apart. Slowly, they heard something humming as it leisurely walked down the corridor with heavy metallic footsteps along with the occasional flash of red hot blades tearing the security drones apart. Slowly a six foot tall monster in grey armour became visible.

The assailant seemed to be taking particular relish in cleaving their heads apart and ripping out their spines with the hook at the end.

"What is that?"

"I... I'm not sure..."

"Ro...re ... ed..."

"What is that?" a note of hysteria entered the commander's voice as he repeated the question.

"Roses are red~"

"Violets are blue~"

"This poem doesn't rhyme~"

Burning blue eyes stared intensely at the camera.

"**NOW GIVE ME YOUR FACE! KAHAHAHAH!"**

The screen was covered in grey buzz as the intruder destroyed the camera with a quick slash and an insane cackle.

The scientist wrinkled his nose as an awful odour filled the chamber, glancing behind him; he realized that the fat man had crapped his pants.

******Fata Morgana******

"What is that smell?" Ino wondered with disgust as she and her team walked through the doors. The doors that were probably about 1 foot thick and made of thick nano carbon steel looked like someone had hacked them apart with a heated chainsaw if the black singes along the ragged cuts were any indication.

The blonde who was searching through the consoles shrugged, "When I got here, it was empty and it already smelled. After all those security drones, I was actually expecting some sort of boss fight."

You sound disappointed," Kurenai replied drily.

"A little. It's like playing one of those old super hard games and finding there's no boss at the end of a dungeon. How anti climatic. And if that happens, the prize at the end is usually worth crap." Naruto pouted as he swiftly hacked through the console. Sure enough, most of the data had already been deleted, but with Isobu's help, he had been trying to recover as much information as possible about what the people had been doing in an isolated place like this.

Ino who had been wondering around the chambers with a bored expression on her face, tapped idly on a wall. She didn't like all these thinking stuff. That's what she had Hinata and Kurenai for.

"Kyaah!"

The other three immediately tensed at her cry, "Ino? You alright?"

"Ye-yeah..." a shaky replied answered them, causing their shoulders to sag in relief, "I'm in some kind of cubbyhole. It was hidden in the wall."

Naruto narrowed his eyes and abandoned the console to walk over to the small entrance that had been hiding amongst the shadows of the large chamber, "It's a little small... but I can fit..."

He sucked in his breath, angled his body towards the opening and struggled to slip through the tiny entrance.

Grunting as he stumbled out of the other end of the small hole, his eyes took in the new hall that he and Ino were in. It was barely big enough to be called a room but that wasn't what caught his attention. Right in the middle of the room, on a pedestal, a small tiny polygon that irradiated a weird silver and purple glow floated serenely.

"Na-naruto? What are you doing?" Ino screeched in shock as her mentor slowly walked forwards with a almost glazed over gleam in his eyes, behind her, Kurenai and Hinata who had just slipped through the small opening, had their eyes open in shock as the blonde stumbled forwards.

Looking down at the metal plague that adorned the pedestal, his fingers brushed the words engraved onto the brass plague.

"**Project Metatron..."** he breathed the words out reverently.

"Na-naruto?" Ino's eyes widened as the blonde's fingers slowly reached out towards the polygon that seemed to have endless facets and danced with an unnatural light.

"STOP!" All of them dashed forward and tried to grab on to the blonde's arm but was too late as his fingers made contact with the glowing cube. Instantaneously, his body was enshrouded by a massive, sparking silvery purple glow that rebuffed all three of them violently.

"GYYAAAAAAAAAH!" The glow abruptly disappeared as the blonde's limp body was blasted into the wall with enough force to crack it.

"NARUTO!"

******Fata Morgana******

**Author's Note**

Let me say something first, I generally REALLY don't like to bring people from Konoha to whatever universe Naruto is currently involved in. I prefer to keep it simple, if its Naruto in Bleach, then just keep Naruto, if it's some other place, then it's just Naruto and the current cast of whatever universe that is. I'm a weirdo like that. Unfortunately, due to the nature of IS, I didn't really have a choice about it if I wanted to write anything that even resembled ACTION with a plot instead of a typical fanservicey high school harem comedy.

So there you go.

By the way, don't ask me about quantum physics and the Higgs Field. I only did about a month of that crap in class before I threw in the towel before throwing the text book at my lecturer on my way out.

Oh, and my geography sucks.


	6. Neverending Cycle

**Fata Morgana Chapter 6**

**Neverending Cycle**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Any resemblances towards people, organizations or intellectual properties in this fic are purely fictional.**

**Only 18 reviews for last chapter. Was the last chapter that bad? Seriously, tell me if there's something wrong, don't just leave me hanging like that.**

**Soundtrack List **

Fiction Junction YUUKA – Akatsuki no Kuruma

Two Steps from Hell – Heart of Courage

Supercell - Tsumibito

******Fata Morgana******

**Play Fiction Junction YUUKA – Akatsuki no Kuruma**

_It was a strange scene, surreal almost. The little boy had been wheeling his wheelchair back to his room on his way back to bed from a midnight toilet trip when the sliver of light from the slightly open door to his father's workroom had caught the little boy's attention. Out of pure and childish curiosity, the little child who had always wanted to see the insides of his father's exalted workplace, quietly wheeled over to it and with all the excitement of a pirate discovering a chest of gold, had peered through the crack with one clear blue eye._

_A tall blonde man dressed in rumpled slacks and shirts stood with his back to the little boy, hunched over a console, looking deeply, frustration etched into his very frown, into the 6 glowing screens that surrounded him, each screen filled with countless calculations, the complexity of which the little boy couldn't understand, even now. His attention periodically switched from the console to something that looked vaguely like a human skeleton made of some sort of dull alloy, hanging from a harness directly in front of the consoles. On the far side of the wall, was a massive painting that took up nearly half of the wall; a grey angel, its mottled grey wings, painted with amazing clarity were flared out magnificently, taking up the entirety of the painting's middle whilst the angel cradled an orb to its chest with one hand, as if to protect it from the fiery hands trying to grab it from the bottom of the frame. A representation of hell? The precocious little boy wondered. Its free hand was stretched out, begging, pleading, uselessly to the white clouds out of which white light shined._

"_How can they do this?! This is wrong!"_

_The surreal scene was broken by the man violently sweeping his arms across the desk, punctuating his anger with curses, sending high tech equipment, LCD screens and cups half filled with black liquid alike, crashing onto the floor. The violence of the sudden movement and the cursing jarred the half stunned boy, shocking him enough to cause his sweaty hands to slip from the wheel chair's frame, sending him to the floor. A loud and pained yelp accidentally escaped his lips, causing the tall man to immediately whirl around in shock. _

_Before then, the boy remembered that his father had always been smiling; that was why the he would never forget the look on his father's face while he tried to struggle back onto the wheelchair._

_His always cheerful, always energetic, always optimistic father was... tired. His soft spiky sunshine blonde hair was ragged, bruising eye bags surrounded dull and lifeless blue eyes. A burnt out cigarette dangled from the corner of his lips, which were in a downward curl, "Whose there?!" he nearly snarled._

_He had never seen his father look so... weak. _

_So ragged. _

_So tense._

"_Naruto? Is that you?" the tall man asked with a ragged whisper._

_Not knowing what else to do, the little boy pushed the door open wider and wheeled himself in, filled with guilt and shame, "To-Tou san... sorry."_

_A familiar smile fitted itself back onto the man's face and he stepped forward, kneeling beside the frail and tiny boy, "It's ok. I'm sorry you had to see that."_

_Hesitantly, the small blonde looked into his father's face to see if it was alright, if he had not disappointed his father. Such was the thoughts of a young boy. The blonde man seemed to know that his son was seeking for approval and smiled warmly down at the tiny boy. When he saw the smile, the young boy did not know what was frustrating his father so, he only knew that he had the father he knew back. _

_Sensing that things were alright, he turned to the one thing that had been niggling at the back of his thoughts._

"_Wha-what is that Tou-san?" he lifted one fragile hand to point at the abnormal looking skeleton hanging from the ceiling with an excited glint in his sky blue eyes._

_The blonde man hid his distasteful grimace at the bizarre contraption, a corruption of his and his wife's original ideal, and yet could not bring himself to lie to the small boy, "That... that is something your mother and me are working on. It's called the Kurama Mark 1."_

"_Kurama?" the child scrunched up his eyebrows cutely, "It sounds stupid."_

"_We called it that after Kurama-yama (Mount Kurama). Strong, unyielding yet wise and shrewd. The way we want you to grow up."_

_He tried to smile sincerely but even the boy could tell it was forced, almost painfully so, "Once we succeed, it won't take long before you can walk and play games with your friends again."_

_Instinctively, the boy, with all the clarity of a pure child could tell that his father was lying, "It won't work, and you're lying." He muttered petulantly, "I'll always be stuck in this stupid chair."_

_The blonde man gently knocked on the boy's skull with one closed fist, "Don't be an idiot, giving up like that before you even tried anything." he gripped the boy's thin shoulders, "Listen to me, Naruto. When the time comes, I don't care if the even the whole world is against us, your mother and me will save you. And you can do no less by not giving up either."_

_The tall man began to cry as his hands shook, his voice filled with a sudden and strange urgency that puzzled the little boy, "Do you understand me, Naruto? Don't give up."_

******Fata Morgana******

Crystal blue eyes snapped open to the sound of gun shots, "What's going on?" his throat struggled to pronounce the words, his mouth and lips tasted gritty and dirty for some reason.

"Na-Naruto- sensei! Your awake, thank the gods." A worried feminine voice broke into Naruto's hazy consciousness.

Weakly, Naruto looked up at the pale flesh coloured blob hovering over him. The blob slowly solidified into Hinata's tear and dirt streaked visage, "Hi-Hinata? Is that you? What happened?"

The dishevelled girl looked like she was about to start crying out of sheer relief for a moment before steeling herself up like the trained operative she was and delivering her report in a sharp and crisp tone, "After you touched that unidentified object, you were knocked unconscious and any first aid we applied had minimal effect. Kurenai decided that our best option was to retreat until we knew what we were dealing with, however, on our way out, we were ambushed." She gulped slightly, "Kurenai took a shot for us, with only half our combat strength remaining we tried to retreat but they kept chasing us even while I kept everyone shielded and invisible as much as possible. Eventually we had to establish a point of defence in this cave because my batteries were running low. Ino is currently trying to stop them from coming in while I recharge by bottlenecking them at the entrance."

The normality of the slender girl's efficient report seemed to soothe some of the throbbing in Naruto's forehead, but something about that sentence managed to pierce the fog of pain, "Kurenai was hurt? What about her shields?"

Hinata shook her head helplessly, indicating she was unaware how it had happened. It was only then that he realized the lavender haired girl's hands were bloodstained from keeping a piece of cloth compressed on a bundle shrouded in a coarse blanket lying on the ground beside him. It only took a short glance for him to identify Kurenai's wavy black locks, their usual glossiness dirtied by the dirt and dust. The woman herself looked extremely pale, disturbingly so for the usually vibrant woman. His eyes travelled lower to where Hinata was keeping her hands pressed against a dark spot on the blanket around Kurenai's side. The spot looked nearly black in the cave's low lighting and despite Hinata's best efforts; the black stain was ominously spreading out.

He shakily smiled, trying to inject confidence into the clearly nervous girl, "It's alright, and we'll be alright. I'll go and help Ino then we can all go home."

Hinata stared at him for a moment before simply nodding.

Ignoring the worsening headache, Naruto stumbled out of the small rocky recess where the three of them had been hiding in, coming out into a stony corridor, giving his environment a swift glance, the blonde deduced that Ino and Hinata had probably managed to find an abandoned mine to defend themselves from judging by the uniform rotting timber and wooden beams that littered the caves walls and ceilings.

The further he walked towards the light at the end of the cave, the worse the throbbing in his head became, "Delta," he barked out with clenched fists, "What happened? Status report."

Only static noise answered him at first, and for a moment the bottom of his stomach fell out but he finally breathed in relief when the familiar metallic tone of Delta replied amidst the static, **[Bzzzzzz... With – exception of life suppor- all remaining core sys-ems are rebootin-.]**

Completely ignoring the fact that the rotting beam would probably snap under his weight, Naruto leaned weakly against it with a pained groan and waited for the hum that signified Delta's core systems were functioning properly again, "How long till weapons are online?"

**[ETA 8 Minutes, however, battle is not recommended. Not only is our power source is currently at 45% and dropping, your stress and fatigue levels are also currently skyrocketing into the red zone.] **

Naruto flexed one hand and punched the gritty floor with frustration, the Delta came equipped with a power source that was comparable even to modern IS's, however nearly 75% of that power was required just to keep himself alive and moving, rendering the Delta unsuitable for prolonged combat. Or any kind of combat actually, seeing as the Delta was technically nothing more than an advanced prosthetic.

That was the primary reason he designed the MPP's; standalone platforms with specialized equipment that came with their own power sources so that they would not feed off his own.

"What happened to our MPPs?"

**[Unknown.]**

Naruto set his jaw, "Set them to auto destruct. Reroute all resources to bringing weapon systems back online."

**[... Understood.]**

Slumping onto the ground with his back to the crude wall, Naruto sighed tiredly, deciding to get as much rest as he could during those 8 minutes, "What... what happened back there?"

**[Making contact with the cube appears to have activated a large number of hidden subroutines in my programming. The added programs have taken up much of my processing capacity, blocking my efforts to resume standard levels of operation.]**

Naruto slowly panned his eyes across the cave, noting the walls darkened with some sort of powder, anything that could help him in the impending fight, "Ignore them. We can worry about the subroutines later."

**[But Master...]**

"Yeah?"

**[These routines. Not only do they seem to have been specifically designed to operate in tangent with my operating system, their operating algorithmic systems are almost as complex and distinctive as my own.]**

His mouth went dry, "What are you trying to say?"

**[These programs were created by Kushina Namikaze.]**

Naruto was rendered speechless; it felt like the darkness of the cave was trying to swallow him. Why and what was his mother's connection to some sort of weird alien looking tech, out in a sub Saharan desert? To make things even worse, there was a one sided battle raging barely metres away from him and one of his friends had already been injured, probably lethally.

Naruto felt like drowning under the massive pressure but shoved it aside ruthlessly, "We'll... we'll worry about them later. We have friends to save."

**[Understood. Weapon systems are 76% back online.]**

"Good enough. Is Armour mode available?"

The tingling that ran up and down his spine as the familiar, comforting exoskeleton enclosed Naruto was answer enough.

Diamond blue pinpricks of light appeared underneath the hood of a pointed helm made of obsidian glass came to life with a strong hum as Delta began throwing up 3D status reports and options on the Heads-up Display.

"Time to kick ass."

Hook backed blades, already bright orange and humming with heat and power slid out of their casings with the rasping sound of steel against steel.

**[Oh by the way? The sensors in our lodgings at the IS Academy were tripped while you were unconscious. It appears that Orimura-san and Dunois-san knocked down the door and barged in because they were worried about you. My facial recognition systems are subpar but I **_**think **_**Orimura-san wasn't happy when she realized you left the Academy without telling her.]**

Naruto rapidly paled, "Ho-how do you know she isn't happy?"

**[She said she was going to pull your testicles out through your mouth then grind them into dust before feeding them back to you before she destroyed the camera with a katana.]**

If possible, Naruto paled even further.

**[Master, my sensors indicate you are having a heart attack. Do you need first aid?]**

He whimpered pitifully with a nod.

******Fata Morgana******

She had no idea how much time had passed. At first she had energetically dove into the melee, defending her friends and mentor passionately, but after driving off squadron after squadron, wave after wave of drones, she had lost count of time, of the amount of limbs she had lopped off. Everything blurred into one single black and sand coloured vision, her tongue was sandy and tasted of nothing but her own sweat and dirt as the harsh sun beat down on her.

Unfocused turquoise eyes struggled to focus on her next target as her violet IS almost mechanically thrust and slashed, blocked and evaded. Her shield was cracked and dirty. She had long since deactivated her heat blade to conserve energy and was now using a standard issue two sided blade that was equally cracked and damaged. The gold fins on her wings were coated in grime and glimmered dully as Ino used her reverse thrust to leap back, once more forced give way to a fresh wave of drones. Even enhanced by the cybernetic armour, her arms and body was weary and she was nearly fizzled out after having defended the entrance for nearly 3 hours.

Up on a sand dune nearby, three black figures vaguely registered as the people commanding the army of drones. Somewhere deep in her mind, she realized that those three people were the cornerstone of any possible escape strategy, but without any appropriate support, she could not afford to chase after them and allow the drones to bypass the bottleneck she had created. Similarly, the only thing that stopped them from being able to bombard her from afar was the fact that she was partially hidden by the cave's entrance.

It was been a painful and prolonged battle of attrition that came down to which of them collapsed first. And she was determined not to lose. Drawing a ragged breath, Ino raised her weary arms and swiped her blade at another drone, barely scoring a thin slash on its slick armoured torso. Immediately realizing her mistake, she cursed herself for her lapse of attention and screamed as she was too slow to evade the point blank beam.

She felt her energy shields buckling under the attack as they tried to repel it. Wincing as she disposed of the drone, her eyes flicked to the blue bar on the top right of her HUD that told her that that last attack had nearly drained the **Mystery** of everything it had. Clenching her jaw, she flicked off the safety, ensuring that the **Mystery** wouldn't revert into life support mode at the wrong time.

Wearily, she stood back up and hefted her shield determinedly as a fresh wave of drones began their charge, when a shadow leapt out of the cave, landed on the shoulders of the first drone and buried a heat blade straight into its skull, cleaving it in half easily. As the drone tonelessly collapsed, the figure on its shoulders that looked like a massive bird of prey with its beaked helm and fragmented wings back flipped onto another drone to evade a burst of beams, crossing his blades under the drone's chin and tearing apart its face with the hooks on the back of his heat blades with a firm jerk.

Ino watched as the Delta swiftly and easily dispatched the entire squadron of drones within moments, simply by flipping from shoulder to shoulder and decapitating drones with a near ferocious tenacity and all the agility of an acrobat.

"Naruto!"

The thrum of joy and relief in her voice caused Naruto to smile cheerfully behind his mask, "_You did good Ino, get into the cave and rest."_ Ino smiled in relief as she heard the strong hum of his voice, distorted as it was by the helmet into something a lot rougher and mechanic.

"I've got a better idea," she pointed at the three figures watching them from their superior position on a sand dune, "I think they're the ones controlling the drones, get them, and we can all leave safely. I'll hold the fort while you get them."

He pinned them with his stare, _"Understood."_ Blue flames from the fragmented wings pulsed in the darkening sky as they propelled the grey armoured OF towards the three watchers with frightening velocity.

******Fata Morgana******

"Aaah~ Someone new appeared." A blonde girl with red streaks in her hair chattered happily.

"Do we finally get to play? It was so boring watching that blonde girl get picked on like that." Her partner in the blue IS replied.

The one in the black model, who stood at the foremost and seemed to be their leader swiftly cut her hand across her chest, silencing her two comrades with a curt order, "Enough. It's the Gray Catastrophe, don't take this too lightly. His heading this way. Formation D23. Disperse."

Her two team mates, giggling like the chirping of birds leapt away as a heat blade slashed the air where they had been standing moments ago, leaving it to harmlessly cleave the sand underneath them.

The grey armoured OF ducked and rolled as the two red and white Uchigane's circled around him, firing beams from a safe distance. The black unit had barely moved a step as it stood in front of the Delta challengingly.

**[Master. Interim scan complete. All three seem to be modified 2****nd**** generation Uchiganes. Energy output indicates presence of custom equipment. The signal controlling the drones seems to be coming from the black one.]**

"Japanese models? Here?" Naruto muttered under his breath as he ducked a beam, "Nevermind, Delta, beam rifle."

[Understood.]

Naruto burst forward as he kept the two others away with strafes of green beams, nearly parallel to the ground towards his target, the black leader unit, piloted by a female of unknown descent judging by her white hair and black lifeless eyes. Vaulting over the blue Uchigane, he slammed his fist into her face and used her body like a platform to boost himself at the black unit.

He raised one blade high up and brought it down with a roar, when two beams intersected in front of him with a brief explosion, blinding him momentarily. It was long enough for the black IS to make a move, jamming its right clawed hand straight into the Delta's gut with a loud crack before smashing the Delta's head into the ground with a two handed hammer blow from above.

"Gaaah!"

"Eeeeh?" the red Uchigane landed softly, the blonde pilot sneering at the prone OF at the black IS's feet, "That's it? So weak. This is the so-called Grey Catastrophe you've been hunting for so long, Leader?"

Without giving them any warning, the Delta rolled, revealing that it had summoned another beam rifle under its torso which it fired straight into the blonde girl's face.

"Kyaaah!"

Wth the blonde Chinese girl momentarily distracted, Naruto discarded on rifle to materialize a small rapier like blade in the Delta's fist and lunged upwards.

Blue eyes widened behind the obsidian helm as he realized the white haired girl had barely even flinched; even as she was smiling coldly down at him.

**[KIIIN]**

"Wha-what?" the blonde stared in shock as his thrust was stopped short by an energy field, the quiering point of his rapier inches from the pilot's black eyeball. And it didn't help matters when he realized he couldn't pull his arm back no matter how hard he pulled.

"This is no normal Uchigane, brat. No normal Uchigane."

Before he could reply, a shadow flashed across his face, and Naruto's eyes widened as he realized that the blue IS had slipped in between them with incredible speed and agility, far higher than any Uchigane he had ever met. Flipping onto its hands, the blonde had a split moment to realize small beam blades emanating from the heels of the blue IS, heels that were slammed straight into the Delta's chest.

The grey OF leapt backwards with a massive push from its thrusters, barely in time to avoid a fatal blow by deflecting the blades with his arm.

Grunting, Naruto couldn't help but collapse to his knees as he gave his now useless left arm a glance as the pain spiked through his head. Blood dripped from the two stab wounds in his bicep and shoulder onto the hot sand where they sizzled softly.

**[Life support systems engaging. 35% power remaining.]**

Naruto gritted his teeth as he felt his suit sealing up the stab wounds with synthetic biomeds.

The haired girl stepped back, the first time she had moved the entire battle, "Heeh... not bad. Even with my AIC, you managed to get away. Experience is really important huh?" she spoke in a soft condescending tone. The blue IS with the red haired girl piloting it smiled sinisterly as she got into a boxing stance beside her leader. A slightly charred blonde with a menacing smile on her face stepped in line with her comrades on the black Uchigane's left.

A mechanical voice that she realized was vaguely male replied her from the panting machine on its knees, _"You were the one who injured my friend weren't you? How?"_

She smiled coldly, a smile that contradicted her healthy tanned skin and long pure white hair, "We're mercenaries. Fighting day in, day out with our lives on the lines. Do you really expect us to strictly stick to those pansy safety regulations like good little athletes? We're not playing here **BOY**." She waved a callous hand at him as she began advancing towards him, a massive black zweihander materializing in her hand.

**Play Two Steps from Hell – Heart of Courage**

Choking back a curse, Naruto issued an order, _"Delta, Mirage system. Now!"_

**[Our remain-]**

"_I don't care. Mirage System, now!"_

**[Mirage system, activating.]**

Glowing, pulsing blue lines raced throughout the crevices of the grey armour as Naruto felt a rush of energy, his wings hummed louder and louder as they dispersed a flood of blue particles into the atmosphere.

The OF stood up, battered, broken, cracked but upright, proud and straight backed as it watched the trio falter, their systems shutting down one by one.

Putting on a burst of speed, Naruto appeared behind the black IS with one leg reared back.

Naruto couldn't help but blink as a black, armoured fist stopped his kick easily.

"_What?"_

"Are you surprised? We've studied your dossier and style. Your weapons are not designed to kill, only stun, ours are. Your pretty particles are useless against us. Of course, we still have our boss to thank for them, these equipment are worth a pretty penny on the black market." The girl he assumed was the leader sneered at him wickedly.

The grey OF leapt back and landed easily in a crouch and cocked his head, _"You think that's all it can do? __**Mirage System 100%"**_

The powerful flames emitting from the fractured wings suddenly increased in intensity, nearly blinding his opponents. They watched in shock as the entire field began to waver and apparitions began forming, copies of the intimidating broken Grey Orbital Frame began appearing all over the field.

As one they stepped forward, _"This is the full power of the Mirage System."_

Then they charged.

"Don't falter! Their just illusions! They can't harm u-Gurk!" a heat blade appeared out of thin air to score a deep gouge against her side.

Another appeared right in the middle of the trio, slashing all three of them in a wide arc, causing them to jump away from each other with a yelp.

"Regroup! Their just illusions!" The white haired girl barked loudly.

"_That's what you said just now. It didn't work then, it's not gonna work now."_ A presence made itself known right behind her, cold sweat ran down her back as she ducked a heat blade, leaving a blazing trail of fire that singed her hair.

"_Fufufu. So your AIC can't work on what you can't see."_

"Bastard." All three of them leapt up into the sky, back to back and brought their weapons up to bear.

"Ah crap." Naruto immediately threw himself to the ground as all three of them began recklessly dropping a hail of beams that quickly dissipated all of his illusion clones, a few even managing to score and burn through his own armour.

**[10% Power remaining. Mirage system has exceeded maximum operating time. Deactivating.]**

"Well... This is bad." Blue eyes carefully watched the trio began advancing on him with triumphant grins, reassessing his chances as he slowly cursed himself for underestimating these three by assuming they were similar to the mercenaries at the abandoned base.

Slowly he was forced to give way under their superior numbers and teamwork, faltering under the repeated blasts of the vengeful blonde girl intent on blasting his face off, while he was forced to keep an eye on the speedy blue IS that darted in and out of his guard, landing heavy powerful kicks and punches that quickly dented his armour. At the same time, the black Uchigane slowly stalked towards him mercilessly, swinging the zweihander with one hand.

"I told you, I've studied your tactics for years. You cannot beat us."

Desperately, Naruto threw himself out of the way of an overhand strike that cut apart an entire sand dune with ease. Panting, the Delta dragged himself out of the way, rapidly firing beams with his remaining rifle to keep the trio away from him. Grinning wryly, he had to at least respect them for their phenomenal team work as they caged and slowly cornered him, with him unable to even put up a proper defence.

Silently, the blonde defended himself as best he could while he waited for a chance to strike back. His chance came when the moment he realized the black haired girl in the blue Uchigane got overconfident, swaggering her way towards him. Pushing off the sand with a loud yell, he could feel his synthetic muscles screaming in protest and fatigue as he burst forward, taking a shot to the back to slash the blue IS, only for the seemingly mute girl to smile sweetly counter attack, fist to blade.

Naruto barely had time to blink as the fist broke his blade easily before he found himself brutally punched in the chin, cracking his visor badly.

Crashing back onto the ground with a groan he silenced his external speakers, and sent an urgent message to his only battle ready comrade, _"Ino."_

"What?" was the growled reply as Ino herself struggled to repel the drones.

"_Retreat. Get Hinata and Kurenai and escape deeper into the cave. There should be an exit on the other side."_

"What? Are you mad? I'm not leaving an invalid like you!"

"_Just DO it. I have a plan."_

**[Your plan better account for the fact that we only have 8% power left.]**

"_You know, I'm pretty sure Kaa-san didn't put a program for sarcasm in you."_

**[She did. She thought it would be funny. There's also a subprogram to teach you about girls just in case you are still single by the time you are 25 years old. It's called the I . Want . Grandkids . exe]**

"_Wait what?"_Naruto nearly got his head blown off for freezing mid battle, _"She did WHAT?!"_

**[It's was in one of the subroutines that I just finished deciphering.]**

"_Shouldn't you, you know, be doing something more USEFUL?!"_

**[I am.]**

"_Like what?"_

**[Like telling you to when to duck... Duck. Now.]**

A massive blade swished through the empty space where Naruto's head had been microseconds ago.

"_Right. We can do this later."_

**[Agreed.]**

The Delta leapt into the air with a powerful blast that threw up enough sand to obscure his movements long enough to get him some space.

"Get him!"

The grey OF flew as fast possible through the sky, pushing its thrusters to the limits as the trio of Uchigane's tried to shoot him down as fast as possible, _"Initiate evasive manoeuvres and start mapping out the cave till the other end."_

**[Understood.]**

Naruto let out a whoop of joy as the Delta nimbly spun, rolled and sped its way through numerous beams, dodging a blue shadow as it gleefully and continuously tried to knock him out of its sky with its augmented strength and speed.

**[They have locked back on us. Numerous heat signs detected. Missiles incoming.]**

"Gyaah! DOWN!" the Delta suddenly took a sharp dive downwards before the thrusters kicked in again, propelling through a mass of clones that mindlessly charged at him, ducking and weaving its way throughout the drones with incredible speed and using them as shields from the barrage of missiles, _"The cave! We're nearly there. Ino, are you guys on the other side already?!"_

"Nearly! Whatever plan you have, now's a good time to start! The drones are catching up."

**[7% power left.]**

"_I know, I know! Throw everything we have into thrusters!"_

With a powerful hum, the jet of flames from his wings brightened and pulsed even more powerfully as he reached the entrance of the dark cave, _"Delta, map!" _Naruto urgently yelled.

Delta wordlessly threw up a 3D hologram of the cave's internal network, a white line highlighting the nearest way to the exit as Naruto manoeuvred his way throughout the rocky inclines practically blind, the map alone as his guide. Winding left and right, dodging blades, beams and craggy rocks alike with three insane mercenaries firing on his tail.

**[BOOM!]**

The blonde screamed as a missile hit his back, the force of the blast throwing him through some rocky stalactites and stalagmites, culminating with his back meeting the rocky wall with a loud crash.

"Naruto!" as the blonde wearily tried to pull himself back to his feet, he could hear two female voices on the radio screaming his name. He had no doubt that that crash had broken at least a rib. Stumbling slightly, the battered and ragged grey Orbital Frame slowly tried to crawl his way towards the exit, a light visible at the end of the tunnel. Behind him he could hear the rumbling of heavy feet as a great number of unmanned ISes plodded their way towards him, getting nearer and nearer each second.

A slight wink of hope blinked in his chest as he got nearer and nearer to the exit, only to be dashed like he had been against the unyielding stone wall as a heavy black boot was brought crushing down onto his back, _"Gaaaah!"_

"Naruto!"

"_Stay! Don't come!"_

"Bu-but.."

"_That's an ORDER!"_

"... Roger."

Tiredly, Naruto allowed himself to be crushed onto the craggy floor, peering up at the three females leering down at him through his cracked visor.

"So this is how the great and feared Grey Catastrophe ends. I'm starting to think that stories of your prowess were _slightly_ overstated if you are this weak."

The black IS reared back its foot and kicked Naruto in the side with enough force to throw him onto his back and cause him to cough up blood.

The girl in the blue IS smiled coldly and silently while the blonde in the red Uchigane tittered, "It's not that he is weak. We're just too strong."

**[5%]**

Wearily, turning his speakers back on, Naruto began chuckling lowly.

The white haired female quirked one white eyebrow delicately, "What's so funny?"

"_Do you know why they stopped mining in this area?"_

Sensing a trap, the black custom Uchigane begun to step back warily, "Why?"

"_The ore in this region was used as an extremely potent explosive reagent, even more so than the standard ones, however because they were so volatile, mining them became too dangerous even though they represented a major war asset to the Syrians."_

The white haired blinked and began to jet away towards the exit even without a warning to her comrades.

"Wha? Leader?!"

_"Even the slightest spark is enough to start a major chain reaction that can and have killed hundreds."_ Naruto smiled coldly.

His final remaining cracked and damaged heat blade rasped out of his wrist and Naruto slashed it against a black rock with a ringing, dissonant note before the two remaining mercenaries even had the time to breathe out another word, _"Boom."_

And the entire cave lit up with fire.

******Fata Morgana******

**Play Supercell - Tsumibito**

**[Ma... er! Mas... er! MASTER!]**

A tinny sounding voice slowly pierced the inky darkness of Naruto's consciousness. He felt incredibly light, as if he was floating.

If this was dead, it wouldn't be so bad.

**[Master!]**

His eyelids felt incredibly heavy, but he struggled to pull them open anyway, along with his parched throat and lips cracked from the heat that managed to seep in through the cracks in his visors.

"_I didn't know AI's came to Heaven."_

**[I don't know about Heaven, but we're definitely going SOMEWHERE, if you don't open your eyes soon!]**

"Huh?" Naruto opened his eyes to find himself falling through the sky, _"GYAAAAAH! Thrusters!"_

He could feel his battered wings slowly start to thrum as they struggled to give even a smidgen of propulsion before they quit again, _"Well... This is going to suck."_

**[Indeed. I can honestly say that I've always wanted to experience being blown up into the sky and then crashing down violently again, inevitably being scattered into tiny pieces.]**

Naruto opened his lips, about to dryly comment when cocked his head, "You hear something?"

**[Something other than our impending death? No.]**

Just then, something rammed into the smoking Delta at violent speeds, Naruto groaned as he felt an iron grip clamp themselves around his neck, the enhanced strength of the IS, slowly crushing his windpipe underneath the segmented armour.

"DIEDIEDIEDIEDIE!"

**[2%.]**

"_Now's a VERY bad time for that."_ Naruto managed to choke out as he weakly kneed his attacker, with little to no effect.

"For 8 years, I have searched for power, and for you. Today, I finally have the power and I've finally found you; you're not getting away from me with your LIFE! NOW DIE!"

**[Is she what they call a yandere?]**

"_What the fuck have you been reading?!" _Naruto grunted in between wedging his fingers between her grip on his neck and elbowed her face, causing the white haired mercenary to let go with a yelp as the batter grey mech's thrusters finally kicked in with a splutter.

**[Dunois-san has been kind enough to share her materials in her efforts to integrate with the mostly Japanese society in the Academy.]**

"_What the fuck has** SHE** been reading!? Nevermind, not the time."_ He turned to look at his attacker, _"What do you mean? 8 years ago? What did I do to you 8 years ago?"_

The tanned woman, her black IS smoking, her ends of her white hair singed and burnt, throatily growled a single word.

"Guantanamo."

And the blonde turned a deathly pale.

Cold tears began running down the woman's cheek, "The end of Castro's reign left a power void and many smaller crime lords did everything they could to fill that void. You carried out an armed intervention there 8 years ago when a local drug lord managed to get his hands on IS technology in his bid to become the new Cuban President. He enslaved and forced the local population to build him an army of ISes." Seeing the grey figure rendered speechless, the white haired woman's lips twisted into a mix of a sneer and a grin, "You remember don't you? You destroyed the factory. My parents were working in there, forced with a gun to their heads. You did not care. You killed them along with the bastards. It was a massacre."

She burst forwards with a roar, **"YOU MURDERER!"**

The black Uchigane slammed into the unresisting Delta, pummelling, scratching, and leaving deep gouge marks on the limp Orbital Frame as they feel through the atmosphere in a tangle of limbs.

**[What are you doing?!]**

"..."The blonde failed to reply, but the urgency in the AI's question seemed to jolt him back to reality.

He slowly, tiredly and weakly lifted his arms around the girl that was trying to stab through his armour. For a split second instead of the burnt, ragged woman with an insane glint in her eyes, he saw an innocent and pure girl, playing with her friends, white glossy hair glinting in the sunlight as she played with her friends.

And it was all his fault.

He closed his eyes.

A choked sob escaped his damaged throat as he repeatedly croaked, _"I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."_

His words failed to even penetrate the woman's rage.

A glinting stiletto slowly materialized in his fist behind the girl.

With slow deliberation, he drove it into her back.

She immediately went limp in his arms as the two of them fell out of the sky, like a twisted reflection of a loving couple.

Softly he sighed, a broken sound that disturbed even the AI, _"I'm... tired, Delta. So tired."_

**[I know.]**

**Play Fiction Junction YUUKA – Akatsuki no Kuruma**

"_She lost her parents because of me. Everything, this whole world has been distorted because of me."_ Naruto held back a choke as he tightened his hold on the girl in his arms as if she was his only lifeline, _"If only the IS had never been created... this neverending cycle of hatred... started because of me."_

**[...]**

A whistling sound suddenly intruded on them as an IS with full white armour cut its way through the clouds. A white armoured fist closed around Naruto's arm in an iron grip as its thrusters roared to support the added weight, stopping his abrupt descent. A gurgled groan left his lips as his arm was nearly wrenched out of his socket.

"I haven't seen you in nearly a decade and you've gotten pathetic Naruto. What happened to my best friend?"

His eyes widened at the voice emitted through the forced comlink created by their physical contact, the cheerful voice was incredibly familiar.

A nostalgic voice whose owner he had been trying to locate for years.

"_Tabane?"_

******Fata Morgana******


	7. Ego te Absolvo

**Fata Morgana Chapter 7**

**Ego te Absolvo**

**Disclaimer : I do not own anything, all source material belong to their respective creators**.

20 reviews last chapter… this is getting sad. Seems like I'm losing my edge with this story huh?

Note : Tabane might seem OOC compared to canon. That's simply because I have no idea whatsoever about how to make her act the way she does in the novels/anime.

**Soundtrack List**

Supercell – Tsumibito

Supercell – Perfect Day

ZONE – Secret Base

Last Night Good Night – Nagi/Gazelle

******Fata Morgana******

_**Play Supercell - Tsumibito**_

_A blonde man slowly stepped out of the shadows of an alley, blue eyes swiveling around nervously taking in the area surrounding his target into careful consideration so that his plan would not fail. _

_He could not afford to fail. _

"_Kurama, you ready?" he quietly whispered, as if conversing with the empty air itself._

_**[Yes.]**__ A cool, flat monotone with a mechanical feel to it answered him, seemingly from the empty space on the front of his chest._

_He steeled his nerves, "Activate Armor mode." With a quiet creaking of alloy, dark metal seemed to crawl out from behind the man, slowly engulfing him with powerful steel skin and sinew._

_Where a thin young man dressed in casual slacks had once been, a six foot tall hulking shadow, with impossibly sharp angles and two fragmented wings imposed on his back now stood, "Let's go this." Even his voice, formerly a smooth, young tenor had changed into a deep baritone with a steely edge to it. The wings behind him hummed and slowly lit on flames, propelling the figure up into the sky, silently, gracefully and utterly deadly._

_Once encased in steel, the nervous youth had been replaced by a steely, confident man determined to avenge his parents' legacy, inside, a large revolving 3-D map of the surrounding area was imposed upon the display. Red beacons periodically beeped on it, marking strategically important areas that the man had earlier identified on foot. He lifted his arms and smirked._

_Flaps on the armor suddenly shifted with a sharp crisp metallic ring, revealing row upon row of ballistic missiles hidden under the armor plating, each of them primed and already locked on the red beacons; weapons depots, silos containing highly explosive material, barracks, and dorms._

"_Fire."_

_With a sharp hiss, missiles began lighting up the sky with their exhaust trails, raining down cold fire upon the man's targets. Almost immediately, the quiet night was shattered by the roar of explosion upon explosion and the entire area bloomed with fiery flowers, lighting the entire compound up like a grotesque Christmas tree. Screams of pain, fear and anguish rang out amidst the continuous explosions as the hovering machine kept firing missile after missile until he had exhausted all his reserves. _

_**[Master. Scans have detected several targets escaping. I recommend marking them as hostiles.]**_

_The pointed helm only nodded once, consumed by a cold anger that had replaced his earlier nervousness, hell bent on avenging the people who had abused his parents' legacy. _

_The jets behind him flared up and the figure cut through the sky like a rocket towards bleeping green beacons on the holographic map in front of his sensors. _

_It didn't take long for him to catch up; they were mere humans, running away from the chaos on feet. Every single one of which who skidded to a fearful stop as a dark grey being dropped out of the sky before straightening up, revealing his hulking physique, cold steel skin and intimidating blue optical sensors that flared under his pointed hood. Without a word, the being lifted his arms, aiming them towards the group of survivors that watched him in stunned shock. _

_Without a word, the hulking mass of metal braced himself as two jet black barrels deployed from the armor plated compartment on his forearms. Bright rapid gunfire began flashing in the clearing as the two fully automatic bullpup rifles attached to his wrist began rapidly churning out white hot bullets, all the while blue eyes burned coldly, ignoring the solid lump in his abdomen and the anguished screams that would haunt his nightmares for the rest of his life. _

_It was necessary._

_******Fata Morgana******_

_Morning dawned fresh and bright as a bleary eyed blonde slowly and wearily pushed back the ratty comforter provided by the tiny rented motel's management. He didn't bother to get cleaned up; he had already spent nearly two hours in the shower the night before, trying to wash off seemingly invisible dirt._

_The inhabitants of the slums hurriedly got out of the haggard and drawn foreigner's way, but unlike yesterday where all gossip had been focused on the stranger, right now, talk of last night's massacre was on everyone's lips. Blue dull eyes slowly panned around, observing the slum dwellers with a curiously detached attitude; noticing one thing in common; all of them looked pale and fearful. _

_As much as he hated it, he felt proud that he had done something to avenge his parents._

_Slowly, without meaning to, his feet brought him to the compound where a huge factory had once stood. However, instead of the crudely built building from yesterday, only a smoking ruin existed, the ground all around it charred black and craters disfigured the ground. Yellow police tape surrounded the area as the local law enforcers looked in horror, puzzlement or just plain boredom. Standing directly outside the yellow police tape was a huge crowd that milled around the factory's radius, discussing the massacre in hushed tones. _

_The man with matted yellow hair slowly disappeared into the crowd, picking up various bits of information as he slowly made his way around the perimeter unnoticed, admiring his handiwork._

_His hands started sweating as he got slowly nearer and nearer to the small clearing that he remembered vividly, despite it being late at night. He tried to stop his steps, yet his body seemed to refuse his orders. When he found himself in an area where the crowd was thickest, he knew he had arrived._

_The ground was soaked in blood and bile slowly rose up._

_He stared at the ground, lost and disconnected to reality, unwilling to lift his eyes up._

_A tiny wilted voice cried out in anguish, pain and loss, like a dying sparrow, __**"FATHER! MOTHER!"**_

_Shocked out of his thoughts, blue eyes slowly panned the crowd until they found the source. _

_A tiny street rat type of girl barely starting puberty, dressed in nothing but a ragged white chemise, dirty white hair, furiously biting and scratching the police officers holding her back from charging through the yellow tape, __**"GIVE THEM BACK! MOTHER! FATHER!"**_

_The world seemed to swirl around him, and the blonde staggered backwards unsteadily. _

"_**WHAT DID THEY DO TO DESERVE THIS!? THEY WERE BLACKMAILED! YOU BASTARD!"**_

_He felt each word blast into his gut like a solid sledgehammer, and he staggered even more. Darkness began creeping into the edges of his vision as he watched the small girl get manhandled and kicked onto the ground by the officers. _

_Tears of bitterness stained the front of her chemise while the blood on the ground soaked and stained the back. She screamed again and again, but no one took heed. Offhandedly, the blonde guessed that the girl was probably ostracized because of her pale white skin, pale white hair and crimson red eyes that were currently closed as the girl screamed herself hoarse at the sky. _

_Treated as a bad omen by the superstitious locals. _

_It didn't take long for one of them to aim a kick at her head, easily knocking the thin girl out. The masses slowly spread away from her prone body, as if she was a diseased leper. Forcing the darkness around his vision away, the foreigner strode forward with a purpose and lifted the girl into his arms with a bridal carry, uncaring that the blood and dirt of her chemise was soaking into his black coat._

_A few officers that made to stop him immediately froze the moment cold raging blue eyes pierced them from behind matted blonde bangs. _

_Without another word, he slowly walked back to his motel._

_He didn't really know why he did it. He just knew he had to do something._

_Softly dropping her into his bed, he cleaned her up as best as he could while preserving her dignity and treated her wounds as best as he could with the mediocre salves he had on hand. He stood above her, staring blankly for an hour before she finally woke up._

_Drawn, dead ruby eyes stared up at him. _

_Neither of them reacted at all._

"_Is it true that your parents were forced into helping at that factory?" he couldn't help it, but that was the first question that spilled from his lips._

_The girl blankly nodded and drew her fragile knees to her chest, deadly staring at the opposite wall, completely uncaring if the fact that she was in a locked room with a foreign stranger, and that she had been unconscious barely moments ago. She did not even ask if he had helped her or raped her._

_The two of them stared at each other deadly, lost in their own thoughts. When dinner came, it was nothing but a meager pile of dry bread and some cheese but the girl ate. As she ate, cold hatred began burning in her eyes, as if she had come to a decision. That was the only time either of them moved for the rest of the night. _

_The blonde could only remember falling asleep, a slumber filled with screams and dead hands grabbing at him, as he stared at those dead white eyes that seemed to hold so much hatred. _

_When morning came she was no longer there._

******Fata Morgana******

**Play Supercell – Perfect Day**

A haggard and heavily bandaged blonde sat on the floor, ignoring the cold and occasional bump that caused his tired bones to ache with pain, his arms resting limply on his knees. Blonde hair matted and obscuring his dull diamond eyes. Dull haggard orbs that stared unnervingly at a prone figure on a bed, covered with a white sheet.

"Naru-chin! You should be resting!" a playful yet melodious voice rang out in the small and cramped sick bay.

"…." The blonde failed to answer, so many thoughts playing a drum beat on his already wrecked and strained nerves that he just wanted to shut down, but couldn't because he was so high strung. Everything was happening so fast, and so muddled; he wanted to get answers from the girl in front of him, he wanted to get answers from the other girl beside him, but he didn't know how to start.

The slender maroon haired female dressed in a frilly maid costume and two mechanical attachments atop her head, shaped like rabbit ears, sighed and slapped her hands onto her hips frustration, a few hours ago, after the conclusion of that fight, Naruto's team had called in reinforcements. Three transport planes had quickly and efficiently arrived, clearing the battlefield and gathering anything that might be even remotely useful in identifying the root of the problem; this mysterious organization that enough funds and technology to create an army of newly codenamed **Sable Drones** and equip three 2nd generation Uchiganes with state of the art equipment, something that shouldn't be possible.

The sheer drain of power the AIC alone should have rendered the Uchigane inert and useless in combat, as well as take up all of its existing Expansion Slots.

Technicalities aside, when the reinforcements had arrived and claimed the red and blue IS pilots, the shell shocked blonde had flat out refused to go with them, or surrender the unconscious girl in his arms, saying that he needed to go to his lab immediately to run some diagnostics on Delta. The commanders had all given each other troubled looks; especially with how unstable the blonde looked until Tabane had volunteered her own transport.

"I… I …"

"Ehe? Did you say something Naru-chin?" Tabane made a cute hand gesture, touching her cheeks with the tips of her fingers.

Dead blue eyes finally shifted from their unconscious prisoner to her, "I know her."

Tabane immediately dropped her hands, and replied in a hushed whisper, "How?"

His eyes slowly turned back to staring at the girl, "My… first armed intervention. Her parents were forced into slave labor. I killed them." He droned flatly, showing neither remorse nor pride.

Her eyes which were usually in slits, opened slightly to show a pair of bright, ruby hued irises the same color as her hair, with a glint of understanding in them. Without another word, she dropped her too cheerful attitude and gingerly sat down next to the blonde, and the two of them silently watched the sleeping girl.

"Where…. were you? I've been looking for you for 9 years…." Naruto quietly croaked, more because he did not have enough strength to reach a higher pitch that any real need to be quiet

Tabane slowly curled up tighter and hesitantly leaned into Naruto's side, feeling strangely disappointed when the blonde failed to react at all, "I was at… the mansion."

Seeing the light of comprehension dawning in Naruto's eyes, the girl continued softly, "I knew you would never go back there willingly ever since Jii-chan and Baa-chan died there. I couldn't bring myself to face you. So I decided to hide there. No one ever changed the access codes, so I was able to use my old room and workshop."

"All these years?"

"All these years." She murmured softly in reply.

"Why… why did you show up now?"

"Chi-chan asked for help." Tabane stated flatly, "She knew you were in danger when you failed to come back after a day and didn't send a mail like you usually did, something that has never happened before, but she couldn't come herself because of some incident at the Academy." Seeing the blonde start to seethe, Tabane immediately cut in sharply, "Don't be angry with Chi-chan. I forced her to promise not to tell you." She stared defiantly at him, "Would you break that promise if you were her?"

Angry blue eyes flamed at her, before the blonde seemed to wilt and leaned back weakly, "I'm tired."

"Sleep. I'll take care of everything until we reach home."

Naruto snorted and Tabane was relieved to hear a modicum of amusement from him, "The last time you said that to me, I found myself buck naked, literally dressed in nothing but my underwear which was stuffed full of catnip and painted bright red."

"I wasn't the one who did that." Tabane promptly defended herself.

"Sure you weren't, you were just the one that had that idea and then persuaded Chifuyu to do it for you while you found a bunch of stray cats to set loose on me."

"You ate my pudding first." The girl pouted cutely at him.

Naruto chuckled lightly and they lapsed into a companionable silence. Tabane hid a bright smile as she felt Naruto's head lean slightly on her shoulder, greatly relieved that her best friend seemed to have worked though enough of his emotions to banter with her.

Things weren't completely patched up between them, not by a long shot, but at least Naruto was willing to tentatively offer her an olive branch in favor of more important matters.

******Fata Morgana******

Diamond blue eyes wearily opened as the blonde stiffly got up from a horizontal operating table and slowly unplugged the wires connecting Delta through the hard points on his chest piece to the mainframe, "Delta, full diagnostic results."

A holographic image of a polygon, with 8 petals surrounding the largest polygon in the middle appeared in mid air. Out of the 9 polygons, only one was lit with a white light while the rest were dark and inert.

**[Preliminary diagnostics have shown that the material codenamed Metatron contained a truly massive package of embedded data. The executed program is not only attempting to assimilate itself with my programming but trying to rewrite my encryptions. It is unknown what the consequences of that will be because the package is nothing but an incomplete fragment of an even larger program, one of nine to be exact. I have managed to temporarily erect a firewall to stop the unknown program from rewriting my algorithms. But it is suggested that we find a more permanent solution soon. On the flipside, the substance itself has merged with my energy reactor, giving us a permanent boost to reserves and capacity. Also….]**

Naruto quirked an eyebrow, "What is it?"

**[These programs were apparently meant to be run in sync with my OS from the start. It is unknown why they were separated from me upon activation.]**

"I can answer that~" a cheery voice sing-songed at them from the main console. Naruto looked up to see his childhood friend merrily sucking on a strawberry lollipop as she oversaw the maintenance with a rather lackadaisical attitude.

The blonde averted his eyes from her, unsure of how to feel about his old friend now that he wasn't running on pure adrenaline anymore, "Which is?"

A frown marred the girl's face for a split second before being replaced with a bright smile, "When the Orbital Frame project was cancelled, all Baa-chan and Jii-chan's research data was confiscated, but I knew they kept a back up or at least part of it."

The bright smile immediately dropped as the maroon haired girl's expression turned extremely cold, a stark contrast to how she had been acting moments ago as proof of her displeasure, "Originally, the Orbital Frame was simply meant to be an adaptable space exploration suit and consisted of two main components. The Kurama exoskeleton is but one component and the software governing its processes, another. As far as I could tell from the remaining data, your father was in charge of creating the actual exoskeleton and adapting it for human use while your mother was in charge of writing the software required to activate the exoskeleton. Project Metatron was only included later for some reason, and was designated the OF's intended power source. The head that project was Violette Lambeth. However, since the material itself was taken, I hit a dead e-."

Both of them froze as they heard a small squeak from outside the door, "Who's there?" Naruto called out sharply.

Naruto carefully formed a small blade and snuck over to the heavy metal blast doors that separated his lab from the living area. Counting to three under his breath so that the maroon haired girl could follow his cue, he aggressively pulled the door open with his blade at the ready, only to find an empty corridor.

He glanced at the tense girl behind him for a moment, "Is our _friend_ properly contained?"

Tabane nodded swiftly, "That blonde girl that came with Chi-chan was looking after her. She was still asleep when I left. Chi-chan went out to get some food. Speaking of which, your fridge is empty."

"It was perfectly fine until you decided to snack on everything remotely digestible, "Naruto grumbled with a quirk of his lips as he looked around the bland hall, "Besides I haven't had much of a reason to come back here in a while."

The Here in question referred to his own two room house, located on the outskirts of Setagaya-ku, a place that he usually used whenever he was in Japan. Despite that, the halls and general living areas lacked any decorative items whatsoever to signal that somebody actually lived there. Tabane shivered a little, the house itself seemed cold, impersonal and unwelcoming, and the bland grey wallpaper only added to the somber mood. She hurriedly closed the door to preserve the warmth of the hustling and beeping lab.

"Anyway, continue."

She shrugged casually, "As I said, I had no way of analyzing the substance itself, so I had no choice but to improvise. By blocking and deactivating those sequences because they were only designed for use with the Metatron intact and replacing them with my own software and self designed power source to replace the Metatron."

"The hyper capacitor technology." Naruto affirmed with a curt nod at the girl, "But what is this Metatron actually?"

Tabane herself simply smiled faintly, "The hyper capacitor reactor is actually a derivation from Ms. Lambeth's work." She admitted modestly, "Besides that, there wasn't much information on it in Baa-chan's back up database. Only that it was obtained during an unmanned probe landing in Jupiter's core to obtain research samples."

Naruto blinked in surprise.

**[My records show that the only declared probe to Jupiter in the past twenty years was in 2017. The government declared it a complete failure due to technical malfunction.]**

Tabane shrugged, "They lied." A malicious sneer twisted the usually carefree girl's face, a look so alien to the cheerful girl that it disturbed Naruto.

He knew that she only reserved that look for the people that she really loathed, "Nothing new with that. Either way, they found out that the substance the unmanned probe retrieved was somehow made of solid, self perpetuating energy, but no one actually managed to find a way to safely refine and harness its power until Violette Lambeth inherited the project early 2020."

Naruto wanted to ask why she appeared to be carrying a grudge against the government, but decided against pushing against her comfort zone due to their newly repaired and rather fragile bond.

Tabane gave him an apologetic smile, "I have to admit, Baa-chan's work is still years ahead of mine. I didn't know that sealing away her programs would cause such a problem."

Naruto waved her concerns away with a wry smile as he remembered the _'I Want Grandkids' _program. It simply solidified his suspicions, "It probably wasn't your fault. Knowing my mother, she probably planned for something like this to happen anyway. Now we just have to find out why, and I suspect the place to start would be by gathering the remaining 8 fragments."

"We?" Tabane asked somewhat timidly.

Naruto steadily stared at her, "That depends. Will you be trying to avoid me for another decade?"

Tabane's eyes shone with unshed tears which she hid by bowing her head, shaking it vigorously.

"We." She quietly restated with a quaver in her voice.

******Fata Morgana**** **

**Play ZONE – Secret Base **

The blonde collapsed onto a soft couch in the corner of his Spartan room, with one hand laid across his eyes and let out a gusty sigh. After that quiet declaration of faith, Tabane had excused herself, citing a need to rest and scampered out of the room, leaving the blonde to stare blankly at a screen showing further diagnostics without really comprehending what he was seeing.

Trying to act himself while dealing with Tabane had not been easy, on top of that, thoughts of the white haired girl was being constrained in the sick bay constantly filled his thoughts whenever he found himself idling.

"It seems like you had a long day." A cold voice cut in on his ruminations.

Naruto lifted his arm enough for one blue orb to peer at the raven haired woman casually leaning on the doorframe with a frigid glare.

A glare that disappeared at the completely lost look on the blonde's eyes.

Chifuyu gave a quiet sigh and took the other end of the couch; both of them silently stared at the empty wall waiting for the other to break first. In the end, Chifuyu lost, "What really happened? I came here to find out what happened, only to find you along with Tabane and some unconscious stranger."

Naruto couldn't help but close his eyelids tiredly and his shoulders slumped as he began narrating events from the moment he had left the Academy.

Chifuyu simply listened quietly as he told her about storming a supposedly abandoned base, finding some sort of alien technology, being ambushed and his past catching up with him almost simultaneously in the form of Tabane and the white haired girl which he had not recognized until he was almost forced to kill her.

By the end of his narration, the normally energetic blonde looked withdrawn, pale and haggard, but somehow almost relieved. His body slowly leaned sideways until he was unconsciously lying on Chifuyu's lap.

"I've always known what I am doing is wrong….." The blonde chuckled bitterly, "But it appears that I just didn't truly understand it until I was literally face to face with solid, living proof of that fact." He covered his eyes once more, "I'm such a weak, useless hypocrite."

"We all are. In one way or another…" Chifuyu quietly murmured as she unconsciously began stroking his soft hair.

"Hmmm? What…. Did you say?" the blonde on her lap quietly mumbled.

"I said, what will do once she wakes up?"

"I don't know… I don't know how to face her, knowing that I'm the source of all her hatred."

Chifuyu pursed her lips, "That was your first intervention wasn't it? After that, whenever you carried one out, you always alerted the civilians or scientists so they could get out first didn't you? Everyone makes mistakes, but you learned from them and refused to kill without a reason. Being so stupidly honorable even though your actions were completely different made things really hard didn't it?" She smiled softly, "But you stuck with it anyway. You can't make everyone happy, Naruto. You're not God."

"Then… will… I be forgiven?"

The plaintively hopeful chord in his question struck her gut like a truck, "You… will be." She hesitantly replied.

Naruto chuckled weakly, yet Chifuyu couldn't tell if was happy or sad.

"Thanks… for listening… Yuki."

He didn't notice her clench her teeth.

The raven haired woman slowly waited until the blonde's breathing slowed into a slow and steady rhythm, signaling that the Namikaze heir had fallen into a deep sleep.

Gently she touched his scarred cheek, careful not to wake him up, "We're all hypocrites… I call myself your best friends, yet I'm too scared of leaving Ichika alone to help the two of you… listening to you like this… is all a coward like me can do." She gave a self mocking laugh, "Sitting safely in a school while you are at least trying to make the world a better place."

******Fata Morgana******

**Play Last Night Good Night – Nagi/Gazelle**

Red eyes slowly opened, dazedly staring at a white washed ceiling. That was weird, she didn't have a ceiling like that, for the past few years, she had always woken up to a corrugated tin roof. That was the first indication that she had that something was wrong.

The second was that whatever she was lying on was far softer than the ratty mattress she was used to.

Immediately, she snapped upwards, or at least tried to, only to let out a small yelp of pain as every muscle in her body protested.

"Be careful. You're not fully healed yet." A flat tenor voice echoed in the room, causing the girl to growl and stiffen.

'Who are you?! Where am I!?" She demanded fiercely of the person she assumed was her captor. Her neck so stiff that she couldn't even turn her neck to look at him.

"You are in my home." The voice quietly replied.

Her neck muscles strained as she forced herself to stare at the source of the voice, a young blonde man, a few years older than her with a haunted look on his face.

"Let me out of here." She tried not to let the fact that she realized the man had probably been staring at her for hours before she woke up, disturbed her.

The blonde man stared at her inscrutably for a moment before getting up and moving to the door to let someone else in, "Eat first. We will talk later."

A woman dressed in a sharp suit, with long wavy raven haired walked in, her sharp heels making a clack-clack-clack noise on the polished wooden floor, walked in carrying a tray of porridge and a jug of water.

The man nodded once and left, leaving the two females alone. Carefully placing the tray down in front of her, the woman only gave a curt, "Eat." Before retreating to the same corner as the man had been in.

As much as it shamed her to admit it, she was extremely hungry, as evidenced by the loud growl of her stomach the moment the smell of the porridge hit her olfactory senses. Giving both the dish and the woman a wary look, she licked her pale lips to wet them a little, "Is it poisoned?"

The raven haired woman gave her a dry look, "If it was, we wouldn't have bothered to keep you alive for this long."

"What will you do with me? I don't have any information for anybody."

"That's up to the idiot to decide. I'm just here to make sure you don't hurt yourself until he makes that decision."

The two females glared at each other challengingly, until the white haired girl's stomach gave another loud growl. Hunger overriding her common sense, she gingerly lifted up the spoon with a little bit of porridge in it to her lips.

Red eyes widened and the raven haired woman watched in amusement as she began wolfing down the entire contents of the bowl without any more hesitation.

It was another hour before the man returned with a small backpack in hand. Giving him a nod, the black haired woman abruptly left without a word. Tossing her the backpack with a smooth movement, Naruto waited for the white haired girl to finish inspecting its contents, two sets of clean clothes, some Japanese currency and a passport, presumably fake, as well as a plane ticket to Syria.

She narrowed her eyes at the blonde and sneered at him, "What? You are expecting me to just leave and return to base while you track me?"

"At least you understand that you were working for a terrorist organization." Naruto blandly replied, "But no, where you go is up to you. Syria happened to be the only place I could think off that you might want to return to."

The girl snorted, "Not likely. I failed, and was captured. At best, I'll be tortured before being lent to the mercenaries there for a spot of **fun** before being offed."

The blonde let no sign that her crude language had affected him appear on her face, "Like I said, where you go is up to you."

Unnerved that nothing seemed to phase the blonde, she tried another method, "Who are you? What happened? I thought… I died."

The blonde let out a humorless chuckle, "You yourself said that you have studied my methods for years and concluded that I would never use any purposely lethal weapons. Why are you so surprised to be alive?"

The white haired woman paled, before going red with rage, **"YOU!"**

"Delta, Armor Mode."

Grey armor began encasing the blonde with a series of clicks until the familiar 6 foot tall Grey Catastrophe stood before her. Frantically the white haired girl scrabbled for her wrist only to realize belatedly that her IS had obviously been taken from her. Not seeing any other weapon, she snatched up the spoon and jumped at the impassive OF with a feral snarl, only for him to push her back down on the bed easily since she was so weak.

"Going to have some fun with me before you kill me?!" She spat at the bird like mask.

The armor fizzled for a moment, before shattering into blue polygons that slowly faded away with a sound of clinking glass, revealing the blonde man who was staring at her inscrutably again.

Slowly, he reached behind his back and the girl tensed only to stare in surprise as he pulled a blade. Her red eyes widened even more in shock as he offered it to her, handle first.

"If you want your parents' deaths to go to waste, then kill me now." He calmly said, "I only ask, that if you chose to kill me now, then take my place, and try to make this distorted world right again."

"What?" the red eyed girl echoed unbelievingly. She had the Grey Catastrophe literally offering his life to her on a silver platter, but she was too shocked to take it, "Waste? You dare to talk to me about their deaths being in vain!?"

Cold blue eyes continued to stare at her, "I murdered your parents because I wanted to make things right again. I am guilty. I have nothing to say to defend myself."

The cold look suddenly shifted into one of remorse and he bowed to her, showing his defenseless neck, "This world is still being covered by an illusion that everything is alright. Your parents' deaths have shown me that what I'm doing is completely wrong, but it also made me realize that discriminately attacking people will never work. Until I have succeeded in turning that illusion into reality, I beg you to let me live. Once I succeed, what you do with my life is up to you."

The white haired woman snorted derisively, "What's stopping you from running away and disappearing?"

The blonde gave her an absolutely sincere smile, "Everything. Because of everything I have done. There is no place I for me in that world. Even if you do not do it, someone else inevitably will."

She stared at him in shock, "You… you're actually serious."

He simply smiled.

She stared at the blade in her trembling grip; it was small, but solidly made of nano carbon fibre. It could easily take his life, right here, right now.

With a short scream, she lunged forward and the blonde closed his eyes serenely.

He was serious; the crazy bastard seriously trusted her to _right _the world in his place.

The blade slammed into the wall, blood dripping off its keen edge.

Blue eyes slowly opened again, a question contained in them as blood sluggishly flowed from a light scratch on his cheek. The blade embedded in the wall beside his ear. Her face was right up against his with an expression of deep confusion and anguish.

Screaming once again in frustration, the white haired girl violently pushed herself away from him, blade in hand and grabbed the back pack, leaving the blonde to sit alone in the room alone.

"Before you leave," she froze, her foot barely out of the room's threshold, "What is your name?"

The red eyed girl grimaced as if she had tasted something bad, "Amelia Karuma." She spun around to point at him with the blade and a vicious grin, "Don't forget that name. Until the day you succeed, I will be waiting to kill you."

"Understood."

******Fata Morgana******

Chifuyu stood silently at a window, watching the white haired girl leave the premises on foot when she felt a presence behind her.

"Are you sure about this?"

Naruto laughed, "Of course not."

"Crazy bastard."

She felt his arms slowly wind around her waist as he hugged her from behind, placing his forehead on her shoulder, "I'm not sure if this is wise. What I AM sure is that I can't bring happiness if I am as bad as those I struggle against. I refuse to fall to their level."

"Hmph. You're not as stupid as I thought you were."

He laughed again, a warm happy tone, full of the confidence she knew him for as they silently watched Amelia leave.

She felt a weight on her shoulder, and a quiet voice in her ear, "You might not be fighting with me, but in your own way, you are trying to make the world a better place as well. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being a teacher in a school where you can teach your students to be the best. That is your own way, and something you should be proud of."

As a bright blush slowly burnt its way up her cheeks, Naruto continued, "Just knowing you will always be there listening to me, gives me enough strength to continue, just knowing at least one person will always be there, guarding my back."

"Yo-yo-yo-you HEARD?!"

"Oh crap."

**[Damn straight. Why can you not resist teasing the one woman skilled enough with a katana to skewer your ass to kingdom come?]**

******Fata Morgana******


	8. Cloacae Canal

**Fata Morgana Chapter 8**

**Cloacae Canal**

**Disclaimer : Do not own anything. Source material, songs, characters and plot all belong to their respective creators, I am simply borrowing them. Without permission.**

Kishi's not around, thought I'd try to do this on my own...

This is going to be so pathetic... Oh and some of you probably noticed, but Fata Morgana's format is actually the precursor to Unwavering Sky. It's a little disorganized but... that's usually Kishi's job anyway.

**Soundtrack List**

John Dreamer – End of My Journey

******Fata Morgana******

_Two young girls giggled under the old maple tree on the kindergarten's grounds that their little group of outcasts had taken as their own, or rather, the smaller one with bright maroon hair did. Her friend, a tall girl with messy raven hair simply smirked at their handiwork; a snoring small blonde boy whose face had been completely painted over with makeup that Tabane had __**liberated **__from her mother. Since he wanted to be a clown so much, the two vindictive little girls had taken it upon themselves to __**help**__ him a little. _

_It wasn't their fault that the blonde had chosen such a strategically defenceless place like this to fall asleep under, besides, they both considered it retribution for his earlier prank. Thanks to the blonde idiot, they both now knew from experience how hard it was to get the scent and stain of crushed berries out of their clothes._

_Satisfied that Naruto had learnt his lesson, the two of them took a seat on the other side of the tree where Takane immediately began working on a piece of paper with some crayons while the less intellectually inclined Chifuyu set about trying to finish her homework that was due later that afternoon, the tip of her small pink tongue poking out as she tried to finish a complex problem._

_She frowned and sighed, "Neh, Tabane, what're your 2 times multiplication tables like?" _

_The maroon haired girl smiled widely as she looked up from her, it wasn't often that the stubborn Chi-chan would willingly admit defeat and ask for help. _

_Then again, she pretty much sucked at anything even vaguely related to studying, though the boys had learnt very early on that she could outrun them before pounding them into the ground with a very mean right hook. She sincerely doubted they would ever use the phrase 'flat chest' as an insult ever again, or at least not in front of Chifuyu. Of course, the black haired girl never needed to know that they hadn't actually called her flat chested. _

_Tabane sidled up to an obviously uncomfortable Chifuyu, grinning like a cat about to have dinner, "Ufufufu, Chi-chan wants my help?"_

"_Wha-what are you doing?!" the black haired girl tried to dislodge Tabane out of her personal space, but Tabane hung on like a leech, "Say it!" _

"_Say what?!" _

"_Say you need me! Nyahaha!" _

_Chifuyu promptly bonked Tabane into the ground with one fist, "Stop being so disturbing." She inhaled deeply with her eyes closed in irritation. _

"_Ouchies... Chi-chan... So mean..."_

_The one still standing sighed and rubbed her temples, "Forget it. I'll just ask the other idiot."_

"_Ah, wait, wait," Tabane whimpered piteously from somewhere near her feet, "I'll teach you!"_

_Chifuyu pulled back her long hair into a manageable pony tail and sighed in resignation as she sat down beside a pouting Tabane, "Fine, but just one chance. You screw around and I'll just ask get that idiot to help me." _

"_Leave it to me!" The smaller girl brushed her bangs back and set her lips into a determined slant to show how resolved she was, causing her friend to smile softly as she and Tabane set to work. As expected, it really didn't take long. The smaller girl had always been very flighty, even for someone of their age, but when she set her mind on something, it was as good as done. _

_Leaning back into the tree and sighing in satisfaction, Chifuyu shook her raven hair loose from its pony tail as Tabane went back to scratching something out on her paper again. _

"_What's that you're doing?" She asked curiously. _

"_A list." _

_The taller girl blinked and leaned forward with some interest, "For?"_

"_Presents that I want Naruto to get us," She lifted the piece of paper, showing two long schedules, one with her name on it and Tabane's name on the other, "Mama says that we can tell if a boy is a good boy by judging the presents that he gives us. So I decided to just write a list out in order to save everyone time." She declared confidently. _

_Chifuyu narrowed her eyes at the list, "Don't I get a say about what he gets me?"_

_Tabane waved the question away airily, "You wouldn't dare to tell him anyway."_

"_Give me that!" Chifuyu snatched the colourful piece of paper out of a grinning Tabane's hands. _

"_7 year old, cute brooch... 8 year old, cute pencil box... 9 year old, cute purse..." Her eyes drifted along the list until she hit the bottom, wherein her onyx pupils widened, "What's that at the bottom!?"_

_Tabane smirked, "Like I said, both of you are so indecisive. So I might as well write it down and save all of us some time." _

"_Eng-engagement rings at twenty years old are NOT saving us time! Besides, isn't that something I get to decide on my own?" Chifuyu stuttered out with a red face._

"_You don't want him to?" Tabane curiously tilted her head with an innocent expression._

"_That's not the problem here!" the black haired girl breathed out, "You want him to propose to BOTH of us!" _

"_Why not?" the precocious 6 year old asked with a grin. _

"_There are laws against something like that." She retorted primly. _

"_We'll just change them." Tabane declared easily as she smiled at the normally cool and collected Chifuyu. _

"_Bu-But..."_

"_Seee~" Tabane sing-songed with a triumphant grin, "Indecisive."_

_A steaming Chifuyu decided that this was a losing argument._

_On the other side of the tree, a listening Naruto decided that if he started running now, there was a chance, a tiny... tiny chance that he might just get away._

******Fata Morgana******

**Play John Dreamer – End of My Journey**

**[Are you in need of assistance?]** A robotic voice, overlaid with faintly feminine undertones was vocalized in the near empty corridor, causing the young blonde girl to jump slightly, dishes on the silver platter that she was holding clattering around noisily.

"Wh-Who is that? Is that you, Delta?" Charlotte stammered out as she steadied the platter with careful hands.

**[Negative. I am the Household AI, version Five, serial number NB002, Matatabi. I repeat; are you in need of assistance?] **The female voice replied flatly. Charlotte carefully looked around before she noticed the security cameras that were lined along the ceiling borders slowly swivelling to keep an eye on her.

It was rather creepy, like it wasn't already bad enough that the mansion itself looked and felt like a haunted mausoleum. Charlotte was almost convinced that she should just run back home and persuade herself that the entire day was nothing but a hallucination but there was something she _needed _to ask Shinonono-san.

Namely, Violette Lambeth, her mother.

"Uhm... Do you know where Shinonono-san is right now?" Charlotte cautiously answered as she jerked her chin at the dishes on the platter, "Orimura-sensei asked me to bring some food to her."

**[Please follow me. I will show you the way.]** Before Charlotte could ask Matatabi to clarify what she meant by 'follow her', a small beeping yellow light appeared on the wall and began to float down the hall way in a linear pattern. Throwing her long yellow hair over her shoulders to make it easier, she silently hurried after the placid orb.

"Why is your name so different from Delta's?" Charlotte asked curiously in order to break the uncomfortable silence, though she doubted the AI cared about the awkwardness.

**[... My designation was chosen by Naruto-sama, the same goes for the rest of my kindred.]** The feminine voice seemed to emanate from the floating yellow ball, **[Delta, however, due **_**to certain circumstances**_**, chose his own designation.]**

Charlotte blinked at the emphasis the orb had put on the phrase, "Certain circumstances?" Her curiosity burned even brighter.

**[I am sorry. That matter is classified. If you have further questions, please direct them to Naruto-sama.] **The ball closed the matter, her mechanic tone somehow managed to sound final as they arrived in front of a large door reinforced with massive bolts and bars.

"Where's this?" the small girl asked with some apprehension.

**[This is one of Naruto-sama's secondary laboratory, designated Laboratory 03. There are six laboratories in total.]** The door swung open with a hydraulic tiny hiss. Charlotte blinked; she had been expecting something a lot more... ominous.

When she entered the cold room, something in her stomach clenched and her earlier expectations about the place resembling a haunted mausoleum was fulfilled. The platter nearly slid out of her slack fingers but she regained her wits in time to save the plate of rice and set her jaw as she headed deeper into the abyss.

The room looked more like a morgue rather than a laboratory. It was divided into two sections, the first resembled a laboratory with several work benches and an entire row of complicated looking screens with complex calculations displayed on them. In the middle of the work benches, a maroon haired woman with two mechanical rabbit ears, dressed in a cheerful fluffy white dress that couldn't have suited the room any lesser, jumped from table to table with a frantic and ecstatic smile, typing things into the keyboards at a rapid pace.

The second part of the laboratory however, was a warehouse of sorts. Linear corridors, each lined with row upon row of 10 foot tall glass cylindrical tanks. Something vaguely humanoid and over six feet tall gruesomely hung with its arms spread out and its guts spilling out in each pod. The similarities between what she was currently seeing and the hunks of meat that hung from hooks in butcheries were not lost on the very pale girl.

However, with an infinitely thankful start, she realized that they were actually empty armours. Each of them bore the same gun metal gray segmented armour plates, fragmented wings and obsidian pointed face plates.

Every single one of them was also heavily damaged and nearly torn apart.

Tabane tapped the side of Charlotte's head with some sort of steel ruler and a contemptuous, "Stop standing around, who and why are you here anyway?"

"Ah, Orimura-sensei left her terminal in the living room when your message came through. I was the one that relayed your message to her, I'm Char-"

"Never mind, I don't wanna know." Tabane relieved the silver platter from Charlotte's arms and promptly flounced away, leaving a stunned blonde girl behind.

Rallying herself, a cautious Charlotte followed Tabane deeper into the lab with a fierce expression, "Wh-what is this place?"

Tabane gave the girl a dismissive glance over her shoulder, "its Na-chan's storage room. Whenever his armour gets too badly damaged to repair, he keeps them here while he makes a new one. Honestly though? With how often he keeps switching his armour, he could do a lot better than just gunmetal grey or black. Everything looks so drab and boring." Tabane complained loudly, causing Charlotte to wince.

There was something almost... sanctified about the warehouse and speaking in a loud voice almost seemed like an affront.

"Why are you in here?" Charlotte asked quietly.

"I'm just running some tests on the newest addition. There's some material that I'm interested in."

Charlotte paused and carefully thought out her next question, "The same material that Violette Lambeth was working with?"

Here the older woman stopped as well and squinted at the younger one carefully before coming to a conclusion, "Ah yes. The eyes. You're Lambeth-san's daughter. I'll have to scold Na-chan for not telling me earlier." Ignoring the look of surprise on Charlotte's face she continued her way through the labyrinth at a casual pace, "But in essence you are correct. Your mother managed to harness Metatron and from the logs Kushina Baa-chan left behind, I think that she was close friends with Lambeth-san, or at least, they worked together a lot. Outside of that, I'm not sure what happened to her or the material after the project itself was disbanded. I only know that she retired into the countryside of her home country."

"I see..." the blonde girl slumped slightly at the dead end and silently followed Tabane, "Why doesn't he just... recycle them?" Charlotte gingerly stepped around a containment unit with a particularly disfigured set of armour in it.

Its entire head piece had been bashed in and there was a long gash running down its centre piece from shoulder to hip, its left arm was completely missing, the way its metallic shoulder was twisted told Charlotte that something had quite literally ripped it off.

"It can't be cheap, especially not for a private contractor."

This time the glance was calculating, despite her obvious discomfort of being surrounded by the tall empty husks, each of them carrying their own tale of defeat and gaping wounds, the blonde girl that persistently followed her seemed determined to get some answers.

She almost approved the little chit, which was why she decided to answer rather than just ignore or brush off the girl like she usually would have.

"He has more than enough money." The scientist admitted with a cute flounce of her head, carrot styled earrings bouncing, "On the surface, he's already wrote quite a few books on the use and security of IS'es. It was because of his pioneering work on IS safety that all subsequent variations of my prototypes are outfitted with mandatory shields."

Tabane hummed cheerfully as the aisle they were on was starting to come to an end.

"Besides, they're reminders."

"Reminders?"

The rabbit eared woman grinned.

"That he isn't a nice person."

They came to a stop at the very back of warehouse where a single containment unit stood apart from all the rest against a back drop of a magnificent mural of a grey feathered angel.

It stood empty.

That was when she realized that her earlier thoughts weren't that wrong after all.

Laboratory 03 wasn't a storage room or even a laboratory.

It was a graveyard.

******Fata Morgana******

Chifuyu, fresh out of the shower, carefully rubbed the towel along her long hair as took a seat on the couch opposite of the blonde who was writing a report in the hall, "What are your plans for now?"

He shrugged, "I can't do anything until I find out more about Project Metatron, I don't really fancy my chances of surviving when Delta's processors shut down in the middle of a fire fight. So I'll go back to the Academy. Rest, screw around with your brother, something like that"

"Screw?" She shot at him with a sharp look.

"I mean, teach." Naruto gave his friend an apologetic smile that she immediately determined as fake.

The raven haired woman on his couch snorted, "Somehow, I don't think there's much of a difference is there?"

"Oh yeah, the principal contacted me. Says she wants to talk to me."

"Hum? About what?" Chifuyu muttered distractedly as she began combing her hair down to the tips. It was such a hassle to keep it so long sometimes.

"Not sure, she didn't say, so I assume that she'll let me know when I meet her tomorrow."

Chifuyu hummed noncommittally.

Naruto smiled cheekily before beckoning to Chifuyu to come over.

She gave him a wary look, "What?"

Naruto stared at her until she gave in with a roll of the eyes. Clambering over to his seat, she plopped in front of him and handed him the comb, "You are weird."

The blonde only smiled and hummed as he ran his fingers through her hair and began combing it with a strange expression.

"You and Tabane always used to make me do this though," he pointed out softly, "Seeing Tabane again, I just wanted to try it again."

"We were kids." She replied with some exasperation, her eyes closing as she reluctantly enjoyed the feeling his hands running through her scalp in a gentle massage.

He shrugged, although he was fairly sure the woman whose hair he was combing wouldn't see it, "Some things never change." His eyes shifted from the long glossy locks to her pyjama clad body and smirked, "Though some things obviously do. You were lucky that growth spurt hit you mid high school. I was thinking you were going to be a pettanko until you were an old lady."

Chifuyu elbowed him in the gut, a slight blush on her cheeks.

"Oof!"

"Did you say something?" She said primly.

"Nope, nothing at all." Naruto choked out.

"Ah!" a feminine voice cried out, prompting Chifuyu to almost scramble away when she realized it was Tabane, "Oh, it's just you." She muttered and despite her earlier protestations she resettled back on Naruto's lap with a content look on her face.

"I want Na-chan to comb my hair too!" Tabane whined cutely.

"You haven't bathed yet have you? Your hair is dry." The blonde pointed out.

The older Shinonono huffed, pulled off her ear ornaments and darted into the shower before shooting right back out with damp hair and nudging Chifuyu aside with a triumphant grin, "There!" She said with some finality.

The blonde man rolled his eyes and started drying their hair. It was just the three of them again, doing something familiar and assuring, even if it was just him combing their hair he half suspected that it was the reason why they both kept such long hair, it gave them an excuse to force him to comb longer.

Friends united after nearly a decade. He chuckled softly and finished the pseudo chore off by braiding their hair into a loose braid for the night. The blonde patted a purring Tabane's head, "There, done."

"Ufufufu. Arigato, Na-chan!" she turned around and nuzzled the blonde until her tummy suddenly growled. She pouted, "Ah... I forgot to eat."

An admittedly content Chifuyu snorted before reluctantly leaving her warm seat, "It's alright. I'll cook something light. If I left it to you, you'd blow the kitchen up."

Tabane was about to retort when Delta spoke up first, **[Initiating Hazardous Materials;Chifuyu's Cooking Processing Protocols.]**

Naruto rapidly began to pale as Chifuyu advanced on him, her long bangs obscuring her eyes which were undoubtedly giving him her patented death glare.

For some strange reason, a comb never looked so deadly before.

Tabane, proving that she didn't have any sense of danger whatsoever, smirked and proceeded to dig her own grave, "And if we left it to you, you'd poison all of us."

The maroon haired girl eeped and darted behind a pale Naruto when she felt the force of Chifuyu's unseen glare switch to her.

Naruto Namikaze, age twenty five, single, pursed his lips in the face of imminent death, "Delta?"

**[Yes, Master?]**

"Before we die, remind me to make a Mute button for you."

**[Noted. Where would you like it placed? Up the cloacae canal?]**

"I'm starting to think my mother is a bad influence on you."

******Fata Morgana******

Author's Note

**Forgive me for the short chapter... I really don't know how Kishi can work at chapters so much.**

**That aside, I found an absolutely wonderful rant about the Sharingan on the forums that managed to summarize my thoughts about it and thought I'd share the love.**

_Go suck Kishimoto's cock. The canon plot is ALREADY horrible with all the really HAX powers running around and really... let's face it, nothing beats the Sharingan. First we get some sort of slow motion thing where perception is boosted, one stage higher and suddenly he gets the shinobi equivalent of photographic memory and x-ray vision in one. Then we get even more HAXXED crap like eye contact-absolute Genjutsu and insta kill black flames. Okay, I can accept that, at least it's still connected to line of sight, but then dumbass goes one step further and what do we get? Uber ultimate shield version, super seal everything SusanoO. Massive mountain cleaving dude that managed to PAWN FIVE goddamn kages, including the black electricity dude, at once, SusanoO? Yeah that one. If that wasn't bad enough Sharingan can now REVERSE CAUSALITY itself in the form of Izanagi and Izanami? _

_Because of two goddamn tennis balls in your head? (Or arm depending on who you're asking)_

_I wonder if they came out of Kishimoto's ass. Sure smells like it._

_Face it; the only reason Naruto's still alive and smiling is because he has Powered Plot Armour in the form of Kage Bunshin, Rasengan and Kurama. Especially Kurama. In fact, I can argue that the only reason we even NEED Naruto is because we need someone to point Kurama(gun) at Obito(target). When Naruto first came out, it was about hard work and succeeding DESPITE Kurama. That Fox dude was a PART of Naruto, not the sole reason he is alive. That he can be somebody MORE than just depending on Kyuubi's youki, but now... I dare someone to step up and tell me what other actual use or skill Naruto has. _

_Outside of talking people to death that is, and even that is debatable... I mean yeah the fight was awesome but Nagato just suddenly stopped fighting because Naruto talked his ass off? Even when his goddamn mentor couldn't? _

_Psh. That's an ass pull no matter how you spin it._

_Five hundred dollars say Naruto talks the ear off Obito and Sasuke for a minimum of ten to twenty chapters and everyone goes home as friends, or some variation thereof. _

_Now that's a bet even Tsunade wouldn't take._

_Bah-lieve it!_


	9. Shield and Sword

**Fata Morgana Chapter 9**

**Shield and Sword**

**Disclaimer : Do not own anything. Source material, songs, characters and plot all belong to their respective creators, I am simply borrowing them. Without permission.**

To ChaosRune and other people with the same opinion; You are entirely right. _Fata Morgana_, like _The Hunter_, has absolutely nothing to do with a canon shinobi Naruto. My apologies and no hard feelings if you decided not to continue either, it was my fault for being selfish and wanting to use Naruto anyway.

**Soundtrack List**

FictionJunction Yuuka – Akatsuki no Kuruma

The Cab – Angel with a Shotgun

******Fata Morgana******

**Play FictionJunction Yuuka – Akatsuki no Kuruma**

_Chifuyu carefully combed her long hair before setting down the comb. She stood up and stretched before heading for the door, "Ichika, Nee-san is going out to work!" _

_A short boy, about 6 years old toddled out into the hallway, clutching his favourite teddy bear, "Nee-cha working?"_

_Chifuyu smiled sadly, "Yeah, I'll be back by dinner. If you get hungry, I left some food in the oven alright?" _

_The small boy grabbed her jeans and pouted, "When is mama and papa coming back?"_

_The girl who was in her last year of high school faltered as she gathered the small boy into an embrace, "I-I'm sure they'll be back soon. So you have to be brave and smile for them when they do alright?"_

_He smiled brightly, "Un, I'll learn to cook for them so that they can come back to some warm food. Nee-cha as well!"_

_The older sibling gave him a strained smile, "You're all grown up aren't you? Pretty soon you won't be able to join Nee-chan in the bath or sleep in the same bed anymore."_

_The small boy managed to mould his chubby face into a stricken expression at her teasing, "Eeeh! I don't wanna grow up anymore. I can't sleep alone at night!"_

_Chifuyu chuckled, "Alright, alright." She stood up tiredly, the toll of taking three part time jobs on top of high school that was clearly showing on her face, something that she was thoroughly thankful that Ichika could not understand yet, "Nee-chan is going to work. Don't forget to lock the door alright?" _

_The lonely sight of Ichika waving at her from the window tore at her heart. Turning around, she ran as fast as her legs would allow, heading for the isolated mansion to drop something off before heading for job. It didn't take long despite the distance she had to cover, knocking on the large doors gently, she pushed the doors open and made her way through the familiar corridors. _

"_Naruto?" Chifuyu called out loudly, the sound of her voice echoing in the near empty mansion. _

"_Up here!" A muffled voice replied from the second floor. _

_Sighing, the black haired girl threw her long hair over her shoulder and began climbing up the marble steps, "What are you doing up there?" _

_A blonde head of hair peaked up from behind the banister. The blonde was dressed in a sharp blue suit and his hair was brushed back in a neat but suave style, "Just getting ready, why are you here?" _

_Chifuyu set a bento down on the nearest table, "I made some food for you." Unaware of her friend's twitching eyebrow, she wrinkled her nose at his overly expensive suit, "What are you getting ready for?"_

"_Ami's father is having a party. I was invited." The blonde answered with a careless wave as he put on a tie, "Her father is pretty famous you know."_

"_Ami? That airhead?" Chifuyu's lips thinned severely. It had only been a year since the blonde received a new skeleton but ever since then Naruto had been… outgoing, to put it lightly, intoxicated on his newfound mobility like a man was intoxicated on drink, If you have time to waste by going to parties, I'd prefer if you went looking for Tabane."_

_Another careless wave was sent her way, "If Tabane doesn't want to be found, there's nothing I can do. Might as well enjoy it while I can," he spun around smartly, "How do I look?"_

"_Like an overblown, pompous balloon." Chifuyu answered sharply. _

_Naruto smiled dryly, "Works for me. You wanna come? It'll be good."_

"_Unlike some people, I actually have to work to earn money so that I can take care of my little brother." Chifuyu answered stiffly as she stood there in a dignified pose._

"_Oh right, Ichika wasn't it? When are you going to introduce him to me?" Naruto asked lightly._

"_I would love to introduce him to the boy who was my childhood friend." Chifuyu who was already taking long strides towards the door spun around with a look of disgust plastered on her face, "the friend whom Tabane worked day and night to save. Our friend was a cheerful yet humble boy who looked at everything differently. When you started acting like a fool that spent money like water, I thought it was just a phase, I thought that letting you enjoy doing things that you couldn't before wasn't wrong. But it's been a year since then. It took me a while to realize it but," She jabbed a finger at him, "You are not that friend anymore. I do hope you enjoy your evening."_

_She spun around sharply and practically ran for the door. _

_Up on the second floor, Naruto closed his eyes and wished that he had forgotten to fit in his new optics the day before._

_He had seen Chifuyu crying a split second before she slammed the door. _

_Collapsing on the top of the stairs, he cradles his head in his arms, "Commence playback, File 023." He painfully whispered to himself._

_The scratchy sound of a voice recorded on a low quality device echoed through the empty mansion, "As cliché as this is gonna sound, if you hear this, then your mother and I are probably not around anymore." His father's voice, cheerful even while recording his will. _

"_Stop playing around Minato! Let me say something too!" there was the sound of something scuffling and flesh getting smacked, "Naru-chan? Can you hear me?" _

_His mother's voice this time, feminine yet strong willed, "Yeah, kaa-san. I hear you loud and clear…" he whispered coarsely._

"_Right, guess you can't answer huh? Hehehe…" She laughed sheepishly, "Ahem. We __**might**__ have gotten involved in something a little annoying. There are some very bad people chasing us because we found out something we weren't supposed to." The voice turned sombre, "Hopefully you never have to hear this recording, but if you do, I want you to know that…." Kushina's voice hitched, "That w-we'll always love you." _

_There was some fumbling on the other end until his father's voice returned, "Your mother is a little indisposed at the moment… Naru-chan… we know that you will try to find us, or our assailants. Something your mother does not want but eh…." There was a pause in the recording, "Man to man, I already know that nothing I say will stop you. Naruto, you are a kind boy, but sometimes kindness is not enough. That's why I have left you something." _

_He could hear his father crying, "A sword and shield. Live Naruto, live for us…. We love you."_

******Fata Morgana******

Naruto yawned as he threw on a formal white shirt over an orange singlet before finishing off the ensemble with a black coat. It was his first day back at IS Academy after what seemed like a year but was only about a week or so at most. Glancing in the mirror, he made sure that everything was in place before descending the stairs to grab a bite to eat.

"That smells pretty good." Naruto quirked his lips in a smile as he entered the kitchen, "Yo, morning Ichika. I wasn't expecting ya to be up so early."

The slender boy smiled half-heartedly, "Back home I always had to wake up early to make breakfast for Chifuyu-nee or she would break my arm. I guess I just got used to it."

"She never was very good at cooking… or household chores now that I think about it." Naruto commented airily.

"I'm actually still a little surprised, Namikaze-sensei." The black haired boy scrapped some scrambled eggs onto a plate for Charles, "I never even knew she had a childhood friend other than Shinonono-san until I met you."

Naruto made a pinched expression, "She was uh… too embarrassed to introduce you to me I guess."

"Why would that be?"

The blonde hummed thoughtfully as he slowly chewed on some bacon, "Let's just say I wasn't squared away and leave it at that."

Ichika looked interested at the strange wording, "Squared away? Was it because of your sickness?"

"Partially." Naruto answered curtly, signalling the end of that particular conversation as the third member of their residence sleepily made his way to the kitchen as well. Naruto threw a glance over his shoulder and quirked an eyebrow at the usually neat and clean Charles.

"What's wrong? You look like you had a bad night."

Charles sent him a dark glare, hastily straightening his crumpled uniform as he took a seat and fiddled with the fork and knife. The two other boys watched him poke at the salad.

Seemingly irritated by their stares, the yellow haired boy snarled, "What are you looking at me like that for?"

Ichika and Naruto instantly lowered their faces and began eating silently, until Ichika kicked Naruto under the table, "What's with him? He's always so nice as well?"

"Why the heck are you asking me for?" Naruto whispered back.

Ichika was about to reply when Charles suddenly burst into tears, "You think I'm fat don't you? That's why you gave me salad to eat!"

Dumbfounded, the two of them only stared as Charles ran back up to his room, wailing his head off, "What…. Just happened?"

Naruto had this niggling suspicion at the back of his mind that he was forgetting something, "I uh…. Dunno. Maybe we should let him stay in for today," he shrugged haplessly; "I'll let Yuki know that he's skipping class for today."

"Right…."Ichika nodded slowly, "I'll leave something in the oven and we can go."

As the two of them were walking to the Academy, Naruto couldn't help but get more and more scared with every step he took, "Is it me…. Or is everyone _glaring at_ us?" Naruto whispered to his companion in a hushed whisper.

Ichika surreptitiously glanced around, "It's not just you. Did we do something to annoy 600 girls?"

Naruto clutched his briefcase to his front like a shield, "I dunno…. But the way their looking at us, it's as if just being male is a bad thing…"

Waving at Ichika, Naruto was about to hurry to the teacher's room for some safety when he ran into a stern looking Chifuyu, "O-Oh, it's just you." Naruto sighed in relief, "Charles won't make it toda-"

She cut him off, "Naruto, I need a favour."

"Uh… what is it? ….. Why are you staring at me like that? I'm getting kinda nervous here."

His childhood friend gave him a smile so sweet that it instantly set his teeth on edge. It also finally clued him into what was happening and why all the girls were glaring at him and Ichika; Chifuyu never smiled like that unless it was her time of the month. The jumble of thoughts rumbling around in his head could basically be boiled down into a simple equation.

600 girls plus bad mood plus heavily armed flying mechas plus Chifuyu equals **[Screwed.]**

As Naruto backed away from the sweetly smiling Chifuyu he couldn't help but snap at Delta, "I think that's kinda obvious isn't it?!"

Looking around in a panic, he made to dash around the corner but Chifuyu, who had already been expecting it, instantly lunged forward and put him into a painful chokehold.

"Delta! Armour MODE!"

"You listen to him and I'll turn you into a pile of scrap iron."

**[….Activating sleep mode.]**

"TRAITOR!" He noticed Chifuyu's smile widening.

That usually meant it was going to hurt. Badly.

"Crap."

******Fata Morgana******

"And so, I understand that all of you are in a bad mood today." Chifuyu nodded at the whole group of gloomy looking girls, "That's why we found some volunteers to provide some stress relief."

"VOLUNTEEERS MY FRACKIN ASS!"Naruto screeched from the middle of the arena where he was tied up with industrial strength cable, "IN WHAT COUNTRY DOES PUTTING ME IN A CHOKEHOLD AND THEN SUPLEXING ME CONSTITUTE VOLUNTARY!?"

"Details." Chifuyu brushed it off.

"Give it up, Namikaze-sensei, Chifuyu-nee always does whatever she wants when she's in this kind of mood." Ichika muttered from beside Naruto, tied up in the same cable, though he felt a certain sense of satisfaction that the blonde was now suffering the same thing as him.

"Namikaze-sensei and Orimura-san have kindly volunteered to be today's target practice. Feel free to take out your frustrations on them." She turned around to wave at the two males, "You have two minutes to get ready before I set them on you."

Behind her, a deep red aura was burning around the gathered group of excited girls.

"Any plans?" Ichika murmured as the cables fell away from them.

"Just one." Naruto instantly went into Armour Mode, _"Run the fuck away."_

"E-Eh!? You're leaving me here?! That's not fair!" Ichika yelled as he equipped Byakushiki and chased after the blonde who was trying to fly straight out of the arena.

"Better you then me." Naruto sent back before flying straight into the barrier face first with a yelp, causing Ichika to start laughing at the blonde misfortune until a large blast of compressed air flew by him, narrowly clipping his wings, "ACK! Ri-Rin!"

"Hi, Ichika, today I prove to you that I'm not just another childhood friend!"

Below them, Naruto landed with a rather loud crash, "Ow…." The blonde groaned as he crawled out of the man made crater, "Alright… Plan B. Delta, Optimize MPP."

**[Command rejected.]**

"DEEEH?! Why?!" Naruto demanded as he began running away from the horde, "You've been acting REALLY weird you know."

**[Changes in A.I. behaviour are a part of Namikaze Kushina's I . Want .Grand kisses . Exe.]**

The blonde grumbled as he rolled out of the way from a wall of bullets, "What the heck was it?!"

**[Resistance is futile. Submit and let it blow over, it's less painful that way. And more rewarding at night apparently.]**

"Why the fuck would she put something like_ that_ in the programming!?" Naruto asked incredulously.

**[She didn't. Your father did.]**

"Oh god…" Naruto face palmed, "I really didn't need to know that….." He nearly began crying then and there; unfortunately he didn't have the time as three ISes dropped out of the sky around him.

"Alright… if you want to play…." His two heat blades slid out with a loud rasp and he crossed them ominously, "Then let's play."

Darting forwards, he ducked under an outstretched rifle, "Lesson one, your barriers can't stop melee attacks from connecting, just reduce the damage taken. That means absolutely nothing when I can hit you hard enough. That's why most if not all top IS pilots are primarily melee based." He shoved the blade into the unit's shoulder unit and jerked, cutting off the IS's optics, and causing the girl to wheel around blinded as her entire HUD went dark.

The dark grey Orbital Frame hunched over when a blast from a rather familiar sniper hit him from behind. Stumbling a little, he spun around only to find himself looking up into the business end of her _Starlight_ at point blank range. "Oh, Cecilia, well met." He grinned teasingly at the girl with the sniper rifle currently aimed at his head.

"I've been training every day for a rematch, I'm not losing again!" She pulled the trigger, only to find that the man had sort of pirouetted, evading the shot, and back flipped onto her back. Gripping her armour with one hand, he stabbed his blade into the power pack on her back, "Lesson two; just because you have a big gun doesn't mean you're better. The bigger your gun, the easier it is for an agile unit to get around that heavy hunk of junk and shank your ass." He landed agilely and spun, cutting off two arms, "In close range, you either switch or a melee weapon or use a smaller secondary weapon unless you're just that good." He patted an immobile and growling Cecilia's head in a sympathetic manner, "And **you, **my dear British Rep, are not **that **good just yet."

Running forward, the ten foot tall dark grey Orbital Frame hit the ground sliding, cutting off a few leg units on the way, standing up he slashed their shoulder plates, leaving deep gouges in the floating pieces of armour, "Lesson three, your A.I.'s are the most important part of your IS. A human cannot handle the amount of complex calculations required to even take a** step** without that A.I. so you should always watch out when someone is going for your shoulder plate since that's usually where the cores are located. Even if your opponent can't bring your energy points too much by hitting it, taking out your A.I leaves you as good as useless."

Leaping back a few steps he felt his back touch someone and he whirled around with his blades, stopping a large blue katana of light from bisecting him, "Ichika?!"

"Na-Namikaze-sensei?!"

The two of them widened their eyes and dashed by each other taking out an IS each, "This is pretty good exercise eh? Well to be honest, I was going to do this to you anyway."

"Yo-You what?!" As Naruto ran off with an insane laugh, Ichika gritted his teeth, "Wait up, you sonova…. Why are you enjoying this so much?!"

"Gak! Why are you attacking ME ICHIKA?!"

"Didn't Chifuyu-nee say it was to reduce stress? I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS DAY A LOOOONG TIME! DIE BASTARD!"

"Weren't men supposed to stick with each other?!"

"YOU MEAN LIKE HOW YOU LEFT ME TO DIE EARLIER?!"

******Fata Morgana******

"Well, wasn't that an interesting day." A noticeably black and blue Naruto smiled cheerfully as he stood in front of the hall filled with rather upset and gloomy teenagers. What was originally meant to be a stress relief session for a majority of the Academy had been promptly turned into a full blown ass kicking disguised as a lesson where the blonde at the front of the class gave as good as he got. Ichika was at the back of the hall, already knocked out due to exhaustion.

"Aww, c'mon, it wasn't that bad. You guys learnt a lot didn't you?" Naruto cheerfully declared, "We should do it again sometime soon."

The hall was painfully silent until a lone hand rose, "Sensei, you're an asshole."

Naruto began crying comically, "What? Why?"

"You like fighting too much. We're just innocent little girls..."

Naruto sweat dropped, "Debatable... and it's more like I just like to move whether it's to fight or play…" seeing that none of the teenage girls were responding, he scratched his head with some exasperation, "Hmmm…. This is problematic…. I know what. I'll teach you guys something secret, what do you think?"

Another bead of sweat ran down his forehead as the girls suddenly looked extra interested, what was it with girls and secrets?

"Is there an old IS we can use?" he asked one of the other teachers.

"Yeah sure." The old woman who was in charge of history nodded and summoned an old Uchigane for the blonde's demonstration, "We're about to scrap this one because it's too old. Go ahead and use it."

"Osu, thanks, Hime-sensei."

Placing the Uchigane at the front of the hall, he popped out the panelling under the IS's chest armour, and fumbled around before pulling out a thick blue wire with a black box clipped to the middle, "See this? This is the main power coupling that connects the IS batteries to the motherboard," He tapped the black box, "This is what regulates the amount of power the IS sources to your weapons, ensuring that there's always something leftover for your safety."

With a jerk, he disconnected one end of the wire and shaved off the blue rubber with a quick cut of his rapier, "If you disconnect it like that, you'll manually shut down your weapon systems but…." The tall blonde murmured with a mischievous grin that had half the class smiling at his silliness. Grabbing the large optical rifle from the table, he popped out the grip and pulled out a blue wire that he nimbly connected to the one from the IS.

"Now who can tell me what that does?"

A blue haired girl lifted her hand, causing Naruto to smile, "Yes, Tatenashi-san."

The girl adjusted her glasses and answered in a distant manner, "By directly rerouting the batteries to an optical weapon, it will allow you one extremely power shot that drains every single bit of your batteries due to the removal of the limiter; depending on how much energy is left in your batteries, something of that power should theoretically pierce anything short of a fortress. The downside of that is that since the weapon systems are no longer functioning, you will be required to aim manually and if you miss, you will be completely at your opponent's mercy. Not only that, the chances of your weapon overloading and exploding in your face is extremely high."

Naruto clapped approvingly, "Very well thought out answer, Tatenashi-san. As expected of the girl with the highest score in technical IS theory." Placing his palms flat on the table in front of him, the blonde's eyes roved over the class seriously, discretely picking out a few students that he had been observing during the match, "Of course, as most of you can already surmise, this is a last ditch effort. I would like to remind you that the Infinite Stratos is **NOT** a toy. It can be a shield or a sword, but sometimes, when you're pushed into a corner and you have something precious you need to protect, a shield is useless to you. That's why I'm teaching you this, so that when that day comes, you will know how to turn a shield into a sword."

Dropping the sombre expression, he winked mischievously at the class, "This is a secret alright? So don't tell anyone I taught you to do something like this since it's not only illegal in matches but you're not supposed to be tinkering with your units."

As the class slowly trooped out of the room in an excited chatter, he gently stopped Cecilia, "Alcott-san?"

The blonde girl frowned, "What is it? Trying to insult me again?"

"Is that how you think of me?" Naruto dryly asked, "But no, not today. I just wanted to congratulate you."

She straightened just that little bit before staring at him suspiciously, "What for?"

"You did well out there. I could count the number of people who managed to get a clean hit on me on two hands. Rather than act childishly like your rival Lingyin who went straight for Ichika to get some points with him, you acted the way a sniper should have done, hiding and sniping from a far, or at least you did until you got a little overconfident and you exited your cover so that you could see your opponents face while you deliver the final blow." Naruto smiled warmly, "Fix that little issue and you'll be a pretty good pilot."

Cecilia lowered her head and ran off with a muttered, "Th-thanks."

As the blonde stretched, congratulating himself on acting like a real teacher, he noticed a black haired woman approaching him with a severe expression, "What. Are. You. Doing?!"

"Teaching." Naruto replied with a half-smile, "Besides I didn't really teach them the whole thing. If they tried to pull it out just like that, the entire IS would shut down as a safety precaution."

"Do you not understand what you just DID? **YOU JUST HANDED EVERYBODY LISTENING A LOW LEVEL NUKE**! Why would you teach them to do something so dangerous!?" Chifuyu yelled at her childhood friend with an incredulous glare, "They may be students and children now but you don't know if they won't use that knowledge to do something bad in the future!

"And that's your job isn't it?" Naruto calmly rebutted.

"What?" Chifuyu breathed in surprise.

"I was hired as a combat instructor, my job here is to give them the skills required to use an IS." The man sat down tiredly with a small smile playing on his lips, "I taught them how to use a sword and a shield. Teaching them that the IS isn't just another toy for hormonal teenagers, teaching them WHY and WHAT they are using that sword and shield for… is YOUR job, isn't it, Orimura-**sensei. **"

The way he stared at her told the black haired woman everything. He was depending on her to teach the new generation that IS's been toys, and if she succeeded, maybe, just maybe, the Grey Catastrophe would no longer be necessary. It also made her warm a little that the blonde had actually remembered the talk they had about her feeling useless.

She sighed in a long suffering manner, "You really are an idiot…"

"Yeah, I agreed with you the first three thousand times you said that." He shot back with a smile.

"Are you alright?" She asked coolly as the man gingerly touched the bruises on his face.

"I should be fine by tomorrow," Naruto replied; too busy looking in a small mirror that he had borrowed from Yamada-sensei, "Honestly, this really isn't anything that I'm not already used too."

Chifuyu rolled her eyes and left the room, returning shortly with a cold compress that she offered to the blonde man who was watching her with a strange glint in his eyes, "I've said it before, but I'll say it again. No matter how many times I see it, the sight of you in a skirt always gets me. Tomboyish little Yuki who would rather wrestle in the mud rather than put on a skirt grew up to be-"

Chifuyu slugged him in the face, adding another bruise to his growing collection.

"OWWWWw!"

Before slapping the compress to his cheek.

"Gyyaaoooww! Are you trying to help or make it WORSE?!"

"Both." She countered shortly.

The two of them sat in the empty room silently, watching the sun go down until Naruto's hand crept across the table and grasped hers, gently lifting it to his other cheek.

"This feels better than any compress." He said with a rather painful smile.

"Idiot."

"At least I'm your idiot."

******Fata Morgana******

Something is seriously wrong with Kur0 lately, I only noticed after I was done putting the finishing touches on this chapter.

She's suddenly in the mood to write pure hearted fluffy romance; especially noticeable when she started writing Outcast Paradise out of the blue. I didn't even know she watched that sappy, dripping thing. She basically stormed into my room, slapped the USB and the layout on my desk and outright ordered me to write the rest. By that point, going by past experience and her current mood, I already knew that my options were restricted to a) write it or b) get a black eye. AND she's been peppering our profile page with… pictures…. Almost all of which are complete and utter slap-you-in-the-face level spoilers…. *groans*


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